


Not Alone

by Rajani_the_Freak



Series: Kindness!Tale [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (aka multiple personalities), Chara has Rosacea, Chara hates sans, Chara is a bit insane, Chara isn't evil, Description of Suicide Attempt, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Frisk is a pacifist but not a complete saint, I'll tag as I go (not used to tagging), M/M, Miranda goes to a dark place, Nice Cream Guy has a name, Rajani is sort of author insert, Reader Has A Name, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn, Sorry Not Sorry, but it'll take a long time, mental breakdowns, mentioned past suicide attempts, mentions of genocie runs, ok maybe a lot insane, reader had PTSD, reader is sort of OC, reader is tribute to dead best friend, really really long time, slight hobo life, they are just a normal kid with a fucked up past really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2018-08-29 16:19:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 62
Words: 280,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8496931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rajani_the_Freak/pseuds/Rajani_the_Freak
Summary: Due to complicated and traumatic circumstances you (Miranda Castro) have been living on the streets for two years and a half. Your life could literally be made into a complicated and convoluted soap opera. You even have double personalities. Yup. No kidding. Meet your other half, Rajani.Usually you just go about your way not wanting to be bothered but not today. No, today you are going to talk to a celebrity robot about and impending attack on the monster ambassador Frisk which you are more than willing to help stop, all because a skeleton that’s going to be there decided to save you’re a month back.





	1. Prologue: Just Another Day in the World We Live

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, first fic on both undertale and in this site... and in english. sorry if the english is not completely correct, please correct me if possible. so... last year a very dear friend of mine died. She simply gave up living and I could do nothing to stop her. She gave up living because other people she trusted completely used her insecurities against her and broke her in mind and spirit. Do I hate them? yes. would she have? ...sadly no. So... to honor her memory and to help me cope with her death I decided to make this fic shipping her with her fave skeleman. ;)  
> Miranda, this is for you gall! And also for the Undertale fandom.  
> this is just the prologue still.

_Rajani! Help!_

It had been a long time since you had reached out to her, especially since she had refused to, in her own words, “coddle you” by taking over anytime you had any hardships. You knew why she’d done that and had eventually stopped pestering her about it but now… now you really needed help and you had no one else to turn to. Not even Hades.

The two men had cornered you in an alleyway and everything about them spelled ‘bad news’ in bright neon lights with oversized arrows pointing at them.

You had noticed they had been hanging around your sleeping spot several times since two weeks back so you had changed locations. It had given you a week of relief until you had spotted them yesterday, once again near your new sleeping spot. You were planning on changing spots again today after work but they had you cornered.

It wasn’t at all easy to corner you. At least not after two -going on three- years living on the streets. You knew every nook and cranny of the city, from the glamour filled mansions in the richest side, right down to the hobo camps under the bridge with small fires to keep the warmth on the poorest one.

The mere fact that they had managed to best you meant these men weren’t new to stalking. In fact they were dangerously expert at it. And, looking at the predatorial look plastered on their faces as they leered at you, you were pretty sure they did more than just stalking and cornering. Much, much more. And they were smart enough to ambush you far away from your sleeping spot where Hades would have balanced the odds.

You felt Rajani assess the situation and the environment around you. It was clear she had been sleeping but she was alert instantly as soon as she realized the seriousness of the situation.

_**Welp! Want the good news or the bad news first?** _

_The good ones please!_

_**Well… we are finally getting laid after six whole years.** _

_Raj!!!_

_**What? It’s true! I sort of miss sex, ya know? Though I don’t really want it with these guys. They are out to fuck us up… literally. Bad news is that they look very much the part of the tipical fuckill.** _

_…fuckill?..._

_**First they fuck and then they kill so that there aren’t any witnesses.** _

You tried to sidestep them but they predicted that. They were still far enough away that you didn’t need to rush Rajani with your mental talk. 

_Fuuuuuuuuuuu… Any way out of this?_

_**If you had started martial arts training when I told you to you would have. As things are… we are gonna need some jackpot luck here.** _

_We didn’t have enough money back then… and if this hinges on luck we are screwed… literally. Lady Luck isn’t exactly our friend._

_**So we will just rely on my savage nature, then. I’ll take over now.** _

You felt yourself being distanced from your body as she took over. Like always you felt sort of numb but, at the same time, not numb? You didn’t feel your physical body but in the corner of your mind your mental one felt just as real.

Rajani postured close to the ground so she wouldn’t be felled easily and hissed like a cat. The men, who had been slowly and cautiously approaching laughed.

_Seriously, Raj? No one took that shit seriously back on fifth grade, let alone now!_

_**Shut up, you.** _

They pounced suddenly hoping to catch them by surprise but Rajani was ready. Her hands posed like claws she tried to scratch the eyes of the one closest and kicked him back into the other one when he covered his face. Asshole number two dodged the bulky body of his partner and went for her legs. Rajani jumped out of his arms reach and kicked at his head. However Asshole number one was back again and grabbed it before it could inflict damage.

With all the ease his bulging muscles could achieve he pulled her leg up sharply, flipping her over her head. She fell down face first and tried to get up while still dazed. You screamed for Rajani feeling just as dazed as she.

But it was too late. Jerk number two grabbed both your arms behind you back and held them there painfully turning you towards his partner who held a small bow knife. He cut your shirt open at the front as well as your bra and stood there, salivating as a beast about to devour a nice chunk of meat after months of starvation.

Both you and Rajani shivered with dread and screamed for help hoping someone would hear… or at least you did. Rajani was mostly swearing aggressively at them guys.

_I’m sorry. I should have taken that martial arts training like you said, money be damned! I’m so sorry, Rajani._

_**It’s ok, Mir. Now close your eyes. You don’t need to feel this.** _

_And you do? Like hell I’m going to let you feel this when it’s my fault this happened. I know how you feel about our body!_

If there was one thing Rajani hated above all was being tainted in any way. After years of bullying you both felt your minds tainted with depression and your soul, or at least the part that Rajani occupied of it, tainted with hatred and bloodlust. That meant the only pure thing they had was their body and having that last haven violated by those two bastards would hit Rajani the hardest. 

_**And I know you aren’t strong enough. Trust me. I can handle this.** _

You were cut off by a sharp slap in the face. You both faced the man in unison. You would not be silenced by something as simple as a slap. They’d have to strangle you first! You screamed again and jerk number two tried to cover your mouth with his hand. His mistake. Rajani bit his pinky and ring finger off, as soon as his hand was close enough, and spat them out in the other’s face. The asshole holding you let you go screaming in agony and the other one punched your face sending you sprawling deeper into the alley.

You saw people walking by the entrance of the alley and quickly took over to call for help. They paused long enough to see you…

***But nobody came**

You felt defeated as you watched them scurry away so as not to get involved in the situation. You had always believed in the goodness of people. Rajani took over again. Unlike you, she didn’t trust in people. If anything, she trusted solely in the capacity the human being had of using others as they deemed fit and discard them once their use was over. Unlike you she was unfazed by the lack of action from the strangers. She readied for another blow and tried to fight back.

This time she somehow managed to dodge the blow but before she could get a hit in on the opponent the other guy grabbed a broken pipe and hit her in the head.

Rajani still wanted to fight. She wanted to keep the last sanctuary she still had safe. But it gave out on her. Their body wasn’t athletic enough to keep up with Rajani’s fighting spirit.

You could feel the frustration fill Rajani, as she tried to make your body stand up again, failing every single time. They were closing in on you again. You united forces with your mind sister, as feeble as they were. 

United, you managed to stand on your knees again, but nothing more. You felt the taste of blood on your mouth. But you glared at the men right in their eyes. You may have lost, but you would never show them how defeated you felt.

It was then that they came and saved you…

This was how it all had started. This was how, a month and a half later, you were now trying to return the favor. This was why you were now standing in front of the most gaudy looking pink glittery door ever, hoping to get a hearing with Mettaton, the famous robot celebrity.


	2. Chapter 1 - No, Heaven Don’t Hear Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda talks with a celebrity robot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup. Just posted the prologue and I'm already posting chapter 1. I actually have all chapters written out until chapter 12 but decided not to post them all at once considering my long bouts of my imagination running dry.
> 
> well... enjoy ^w^

_**You know? This is kind of stupid. I mean, trying to get a hearing with Alphys was impossible enough. What makes you think you can talk to ironface beyond this door.** _

_I gotta try, Raj. You know I do._

You were currently sitting outside the flashiest door you had ever seen in your life. Your name is Miranda Castro and you were currently 26 years old. Due to several circumstances you prefer to keep private you are currently living on the streets. That however doesn’t make you a hobo. You do have a job that pays relatively well, you just can’t channel that money towards acquiring a house or apartment for now. You did have, however, several pets back at your sleeping spot, not all of them yours per say but still under your care. Unknown to most people you also suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder, also known as Multiple Personality Disorder and your mind sister, as you call her, had named herself Rajani.

Neither one of you knew for sure when they had surfaced or who was the original personality and when exactly The Split had happened. It had seemed like such a gradual thing that could be traced far back into your childhood.

You were sure that Rajani her been dominant in your teens before you had met Sophie, your… ex-friend. But you were also vaguely aware that you had been the dominant one before all the bullying had started and all that was before the actual Split. Somehow in the timeframe between meeting Sophie and meeting Daniel (your ex-boyfriend) your personality had split into two distinct ones and you both had come to terms with keeping you as the main one. 

To tell the truth you always felt reluctant to consider Rajani as another personality altogether because she was so alike you aside from some critical differences. If you had to explain via metaphor you would say that regular multiple personalities were like twins. Both started from the same egg but said egg had split into two somewhere along the way and two people were created. But with Rajani you always felt that instead of being completely split you were instead like Siamese twins, still sharing part of your body. It was like the core of your personalities was the same, but you then branched out two different ways while still connected by the core.  
It was all too confusing to explain even to yourself so you mostly avoided thinking about it and in the end all it meant was that neither of you could act or feel completely independent from the other with some occasional exceptions. Even the agreement of keeping you as dominant was a decision made together and it had mostly worked until six years ago when you world came crashing down on your most vulnerable moment. 

Rajani had to take over then for a whole year before you had recovered enough to be back in charge. You were slowly recovering from your break down when, three years ago everything changed again. You still didn’t understand how you managed to stay afloat instead of crashing down the second time around. But then again… was feeling resigned to live for the wellbeing of others really living?

You dispel your dark thoughts away before Rajani could sense them and get upset at you again. Your state of mind affected her too, though she could still resist somewhat.

_**Well, I understand wanting to settle a score. I still think that the lengths you’ll go through are overkill.**_ She finally states grudgingly. She knows you are not just planning to warn them of the immediate danger. She knows you plan to take a more active role in it and it worries her.

_Raj, what do we really have to lose?_

_**You know what.** _

You sigh. You know that she is only arguing about it because she feels responsible for you.

A man came out of the glittery door, snapping you out of your conversation. The way he was dressed he was definitely part of the security staff, with his suit and shades, but he was wearing a hot pink tie. You concluded the tie was a job requirement for working under Mettaton.

“Mettaton will receive you now.” He announced

As you crossed the doorway Rajani noticed it was in fact a disguised metal detector of sorts and you both wonder how did Mettaton cross it without triggering it.

You barely had any time to take in the décor of the room before Mettaton himself obstructed your vision. Despite already knowing how he looked you couldn’t help but be surprised at the detail given to the robot’s face to allow that much expression in his face.

“Hello, Darling! It’s always a pleasure to meet such a dedicated fan. I heard from Bubbah here how determined you were to meet with me.” Mettaton wrapped an arm around the neck of the private security that had led you in. “What’s your name, Darling?”

Before you got to reply Mettaton had already shifted his attention towards Bubbah again.

“Could you bring me my special autograph paper, darling? Thank you.” Bubbah never even got to nod at the request before being dispatched. By his unfazed facial expression it was a common occurrence. Mettaton turned to you again. “Where were we, Darling? Oh right, your name! Yes!”

“O-oh! I’m Miranda and I need to…”

“Miranda? What a nice name!” Bubbah returned with a thick cream paper bordered in hot pink glitter with the MTT brand in the lower right corner and Mettaton produced a hot pink marker. “Can I call you Randy, darling? Oh you must tell me! What’s your favorite song from my new album?” He proceeded to scrawl a signature as flashy as he was.

“Humm… Sure, I guess… Actually I still haven’t had the time to purchase your new album but that’s not…”

“Oh, Darling! How unfortunate! You poor thing, to be deprived from such a master piece. Bubbah, would you please?” He batted his visible eye at the PS, who needed no further prodding before leaving. Mettaton handed you his signature.

“Thank you, mister Mettaton.” You said politely accept it feeling frustrated the situation. “But I really need to talk to you about something serious. Please! It’s about the Ambassador?”

That finally gave him some pause in his flamboyant monologue.

“Well, why didn’t you say so, darling?” He said looking remarkably much more serious though still maintaining a relaxed glamorous pose. “Now, tell me what you wanted to talk about.”

You take a deep breath, relieved he was willing to listen to you.

“A few days back I overheard some people talking. They were planning to attack the Ambassador and their entourage on the press conference they’ll be giving tomorrow afternoon. By the way they were talking I understood they were being serious about it. Dead serious. I tried talking to the police but they don’t believe me and couldn’t contact their security staff to warn them and I’m not even sure if I would be taken seriously after the way the police dismissed me.”

“That is indeed a very serious matter, darling, but why come to me? My specialty is the entertainment business, after all.”

You decided to use some flattery. It helped that it was mostly true.

“Because I’ve tried every other official mean to try and warn them. And I know how important you are to the monster community. Not only are you the biggest star for the monster community you also have a personal connection to Ambassador Frisk. You are my last hope, mister Mettaton. Please believe me.”

He seemed to ponder on the subject as he observed your earnest expression.

“Saying this is all true, darling, I still have to ask. What do you get out of it?”

“What?” You said in disbelief. Did he actually think you were out to get something out of it.

_**Can you blame him,…’darling’?** _

You ignored Rajani as Mettaton elucidated you.

“Look, I do not doubt you. But I know that people, whether being monster or human, usually want something out of their good deeds. I was one of them after all.”

You sighed.

“It’s not that I’m doing this out of the kindness of my heart completely. I’m not a saint. I’m just a human with all my strengths and all my faults. But… There’s one person in the Ambassador’s entourage… I owe him my life, even if he doesn’t realize it. I want to repay him. He didn’t need to do what he did. I want to protect him.” You stare straight into Mettaton’s only visible eye to let him see just how serious and honest you were. “If you won’t help me I’ll just do it myself. I’d have better chances if I had someone helping me, but I’ll still do it alone if needed be!” 

You knew that if you had to do it alone you would most definitely die and there were high chances that death would be in vain. You didn’t know who else to turn to. This was really your last chance.

After a moment of silence Mettaton finally spoke.

“… Have you tried talking to Alphys?” He said, his face unreadable.

“I couldn’t get a hearing with her. She was holding some sort of lecture about the properties of magic regarding technology two states over and was unreachable.”

“Well, darling, not anymore.” He finally said, smiling gently. It wasn’t at all like his usual bright smiles that were more glamorous than genuine. It was smile that meant he believed. That your hope was rewarded at last.

***

You looked around at the stylish room you were given still shell shocked. Rajani was as flabbergasted as you. After Bubbah had returned with the album Mettaton wanted to give you the robotic superstar had suddenly declared you would be spending the night at his luxury flat and before you had a chance to protest you found yourself being dragged hastily out of his dressing room into a limo and finally into what you could only describe as whole top floor of a very tall building. 

Being a star or not you still couldn’t understand how someone who only had seven months to rise to fame could afford this place. In your experience, top floors of luxury buildings were anything but cheap.

Once inside he had pushed your blubbering, stuttering self into this room and told you to wait inside until he came to get you.

Were you… somehow… dreaming… ?...

You slowly rose your right hand to your left arm and pinched hard

_**O** w **c** h **!**!_ You and Rajani said in unison.

_**So… that happened! Now what?** _

_Now we wait. Mettaton has yet to tell us about what we’ll be doing._ He had corrected you enough time to make you drop the ‘mister’ part.  
 _ **UGH! Waiting SUCKS! I wanna do something! I hate standing still.**_

_And this is why I’m in charge now. This is something we need to think thoroughly or else lives could be lost._

_**… You are one of those lives too, ya know?** _

_I know._   
_**…** _   
_..._   
_**… I wonder what that metal head is doing that is taking so damn long…** _

 

\--Mettaton POV--

 

While Miranda and Rajani were still recovering from such a sudden change of pace, Mettaton was in his own room, his ingrained cell phone currently on standby. He had to admit you had been quite passionate while telling your little tale but Mettaton was no fool. Anyone could sound just as sincere with some acting lessons.

There was just one way of being sure something was really going to happen. 

He almost sighed in relief when a voice finally came through the other end of the line.

“S-so I checked what you just t-told me. It was h-hard to find but… there really is a group of people p-planning something for t-tomorrow.” Alphys said sounding very much distressed but trying to keep calm due to the seriousness of the situation.

“So she wasn’t lying, then.”

“I’m af-fraid so… T-though I don’t know how she k-knew because s-someone w-who is this good at h-hiding themselves w-wouldn’t j-just t-talk about it… b-but… i-it’s the truth and I-I… I c-can’t reach Undyne, o-or Asgore o-o-or… ANY of them! They are on a plane right now! W-what do I do!?” Whatever calmness she had managed to coax herself into was fading fast and he could almost hear the tears in her voice.

“Calm down, darling! If we can’t reach them it just means we have to be the ones to save the day, right?”

“B-but…”

“Hush now, darling. No time for self-commiseration. Now, we have your brilliant brains, my handsome face and gorgeous combat skills and a tired looking human to solve this all out without casualties. So… How do we do this?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this song is pretty easy I guess XD   
> please comment and feel free to correct any mistakes I might have made.


	3. Chapter 2: Slowly Fading Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet Miranda's and Rajani's pack and we find out how they got out of the sticky situation from the Prologue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I'm back. Enjoy ^w^

>   
>  -Entry 25-
> 
> -Dear sister-
> 
> -I finally managed to contact Dr. Alphys but only after an appointment with the celebrity Mettaton. Who knew that it would be easier to reach him than it would be to reach the Doc herself? Rajani was certain it couldn’t be done but we did it! Finally someone took me seriously.
> 
> The problem is that the conference is tomorrow. We won’t have much time for preparing. At least Dr Alphys managed to hack further into their chat logs and know some more details about the attack.
> 
> Mettaton insisted I stay with him until this whole thing is over. Guess I’m still not trusted.
> 
> They allowed me to bring my pets in. They’ll be part of the plan too.-  
> 

.

You closed your journal and tucked it neatly inside your backpack. You had brought a change of clothes and supplies for your companions. It was going to get pretty crowded in that bed when you finally went to sleep but you were used to it. At least the mattress was soft unlike the moistly ground.

You left the room. Your animals were currently meeting Mettaton and you needed to make sure both parties were comfortable.  
In the living room the robot seemed quite taken by the friendliness of your three cats and three dogs that surrounded him. Technically you only actually owned the cats, but the dogs’ owner couldn’t care for them so you would in her stead.

The three cats were sisters you had raised since babies, tossed outside in the summer heat to die with just three weeks old. Despite being sisters they were all colored differently. The only thing they all had in common was their golden eyes. 

The biggest, which in this particular situation actually meant fattest, was a lazy white cat named Artemis, who was the beauty of the party. Then there was Dusk, a tortoise shell with a crooked tail that reminded you of Harry Potter’s lightning scar and who was most loyal to you out of all of them. Finally the runt of the litter was a black cat named Nix who was extremely agile.

As for the dogs the biggest was a male named Hades who was a fearsome giant with a heart of gold. Then there was Iris, a medium sized mutt with a destructive streak. And at last there was Nucha, a apricot toy poodle with a keen sense of smell.

You were sort of impressed that Mettaton had somehow managed to charm your pets so easily, especially Artemis who usually hissed at anyone else but you or her sisters.  
Interesting. Must be because he’s not organic. Rajani theorized.

“Oh, Randy, darling! You just have to lend me this white beauty for a guest appearance in one of my shows!” Mettaton had noticed you were out of your temporary room and was currently holding a somewhat resigned Artemis in his arms.

“I don’t know if she has a profile for stardom, Mettaton. She can be quite temperamental.”

“Nonsense, darling. It’s clear to anyone who sees her that she’s a natural born star!”

“If you say so.” You said smiling. In your opinion what Mettaton really wanted was Artemis’s companionship. The cat was a real sweetheart when she felt like it.

“By the way, darling. You never did say who saved you and how. You just must tell me. It seems like such an intense story filled with action, drama and maybe a little romance?” He suggested while wagging his metallic eyebrows suggestively at ‘romance’. You couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“No romance at all, really.”

“So what did happen?”

“Well…”

“Oh wait a minute, I’m going to check if Alphys managed to get her flight here yet of not. She would probably like to hear that story too.” You heard dialing but you didn’t see Mettaton actually dialing anything. It didn’t take long for Alphys to pick up the phone.

“Y-yes, Mettaton?”

“Darling! I was just about to press Randy for details on her rescue and thought you might like to hear it. How much time do you have left before your flight?”

“O-oh! I still have some time. I-I want to hear!”

“Jeez! It really wasn’t such a big deal…”

“W-well. It was enough to make you go this far for him, r-right?”

Sigh.

“Fine. I was returning from work when I noticed a pair of shady guys following me. They managed to corner me in a dead end alley way which is a big feat because I’m pretty knowledgeable of this city’s streets. They wanted to rape me and by the look in their eyes they were going to kill me afterwards.” The both of them gasped in horror. You sincerely felt nothing about it now. It was done and over with and you were safe now. Besides it wasn’t the first time you dealt with sexual harassment .

“I called out to some people walking on the street but no one cared. They ran away. I was pretty close to losing hope when… “ You paused dramatically for the sake of your listeners. “Well I pretty much momentarily fainted. I was struck pretty bad in the head.” The both of them groaned at your antics and you laughed at their reactions.

“Well. Turns out that, while I was struggling in the alley way, Dusk here, who has the habit of walking me home, immediately went to find help and came across them…”

You recalled that moment in the alley way when everything changed.

-|-|-|-|-

You managed to stand on your knees again, but nothing more. You felt the taste of blood on your mouth. But you glared at the men right in their eyes. You may have lost, but you would never show them how defeated you felt.

Your vision was getting pretty hazy. Where you seeing double? There seemed to be two more people in front of you… except… the sizes didn’t match? One of the doubles was too short and the other too tall… You shook your head trying to clear your vision. 

It cleared enough for you to see asshole number one getting ready to strike you again. You gritted your teeth at them in unison and readied for the blow. But between you and the thugs appeared a huge… bone?

His hand hit the bone and he yelped in pain. 

"I’M SORRY FOR THAT, MUSCULAR HUMAN. BUT WHATEVER YOUR PROBLEM WITH THE SKINNY HUMAN IS I’M PRETTY SURE THAT IS NOT THE WAY TO SOLVE IT!” Said the taller double revealing to be a very tall skeleton who was dressed in some sort of handmade costume. You blinked, still tensed into a wary pose as you were unsure of what was happening. Did you hit your head too hard and were now hallucinating? The other shadow was yet another skeleton too, this time short, wearing a blue hoodie and gym shorts… he looked rather… adorably chubby? Definitely a hallucination.

The two men in front of you blanched but still held their ground.

“It’s non of yo business, freak!”

“Yeah, just keep walking and take mini-you with ya.”

_**I don’t think this is a hallucination, Mir…** _

_Then how… Oh right! Six months ago. Big uproar. Monsters are real and what not…_

_**Too busy surviving to care…Yeah, that dealy.**_ Rajani completed. When the monster community had been released from the underground you hadn’t really paid much attention to it. It was interesting enough to be memorable but you were just too busy with getting money to care about it.

You had gotten distracted with your inner dialogue and your still-sort-of-hazy eyes noticed that your attackers were now lunging towards the tall skeleton.

_Oh no you don’t._ With all the strength you had left you jumped forwards not quite sure what to do with yourself. You only knew that you couldn’t let the skeleton that tried to save you get hurt. 

_**My turn.**_ Rajani took over and launched your body into a spin kick distracting one of them from their target.

And that was all you managed to do. Still in mid air your consciousness faded. But not before you glanced one last time at the skeletons. The tall one was restraining the thug you hadn’t attacked. As for the short one… he was just standing there! Just staring at you! What the fudge!? And with that last thought everything went black.

When you next regained consciousness you noticed you were still in the alley way but instead of the floor you were huddled against a hard yet warm surface. Some kind of exhaust vent from a kitchen perhaps? Was there someone whispering near your you? Why would… Wait… Oh right you were being attacked!

You snapped upright only to hit your forehead against something hard.

“Ow!” “OWIE!”

Someone chuckled nearby and when you cleared you vision from your sudden tears of pain you realized that the hard warm surface you were leaning against was in fact the taller skeleton who was cradling you in his arms. The one who had chuckled was the short one who was squatting near them. Sitting on the latter’s shoulder was Dusk.

Immediately you realized that your cat must have leaded those two skeletons there. You sigh in relief that the struggle was over. You decide to immediately get things in order in case something like this happens again. Your sister depends on you, after all. You need to make sure she’ll be taken care of if you are gone. You miss her. You haven’t visited her in a while…

_**Not that she cares, though…** _

“HMMM… SKINNY HUMAN? ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?”

You realize too late that the taller skeleton was talking to you as you just dazed there.

“Huh? S-sorry! I guess I’m still a bit rattled.”

The small skeleton snorts as the tall one looks at you in disbelief.

“What?” You ask confused.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT, SANS! THE SKINNY HUMAN HAS JUST BARELY AWAKENED AND IS ALREADY UNDER YOUR BAD INFLUENCES!”

“What?”

“what can i say, bro. my _humerus_ contagious. ”

“SAAAAANS!”

_Wha… oh… OH! Right! Rattled. ‘Cause bones rattle! And they’re skeletons! Who’re made of bones! Ok!_

_**I can’t believe you actually made a pun without even so much as thinking…** _

_Hush, you!_

The short skeleton -Sans, right?- was staring at you oddly again, though his grin was still in place. It was the same way he had stared at you before you had blacked out. What was he staring at?

You follow his gaze to your chest only to notice that you were one inch away from showing one of your nipples. You quickly pull both halves of your ripped shirt closer while turning the color of a ripe tomato. You glare at him for staring and notice there’s a bluish sheen to his cheekbones. What…? Nevermind…

Wait, he was staring at you that very same way earlier too, right? Was he…?

_**The fuckin perv. Not only did he just stand there doing nothing, he was also checking my merch while we were half dead!?** _

“SKINNY HUMAN, IS SOMETHING WRONG?” You look up at the tall skeleton that has yet to put you down and glance down at your ripped shirt again. “OH! IT APPEARS YOU ARE CONCERNED WITH THE STATE OF YOUR ATTIRE. WORRY NOT, SKINNY HUMAN. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL FIX IT FOR YOU!”

You glance up in disbelief. Was he going to stitch your ruined shirt back up? Just like that!? He puts you down and you watch as he unwraps his red scarf from his neck. The scarf looked worse for the wear like he wore it a lot. He must really like it a lot. He proceeds to tie is over your chest effectively covering your breasts.

“THERE! MUCH BETTER NOW!”

“But your scarf…”

“WORRY NOT, SKINNY HUMAN! YOU CAN KEEP IT FOR NOW AS YOU HAVE A BIGGER NEED OF IT THAN ME AT THIS MOMENT. YOU CAN RETURN IT AT A LATER DATE.”

“that’s right, kiddo. it’s no use resisting. paps will just _wear_ you down. ”

This sends Papyrus into a rage and suddenly both brothers are too busy to notice you.

You feel like crying. It’s been a long time since someone… 

_**cared…** _

Even Rajani wasn’t immune to it completely. Who would have thought that you needed to meet monsters to feel true humanity… You felt… humbled. You feel something rub against your arm. It’s Dusk. You hug her tight as she purrs in delight.

_**We can’t stay, you know? We can’t become attached and they are better off without us near.** _

As usual, Rajani was right. You had nothing to give them. Nothing to offer. And all the people who got near you always got hurt. Well, either that or they backstabbed you…

So you did what you thought was best. While they were still distracted you fled.

-|-|-|-|-

You finish your tale, having left out any reference to Rajani. Your spectators were oddly quiet.

“I-I sort of s-ship it.” Alphys finally said.

“What? No! I don’t feel that way about him, you silly goose.” You laugh.

“Why n-not?”

“While I do admit he was pretty cool and a complete sweetheart I just don’t feel a romantic vibe towards him. I am, however thankful to him not just because he saved my life but because he showed me there’s still kindness in the world. I have long since begun to believe that it was just a pretty word people tossed about… But romance wise…? It would be like dating a.. sibling or a… cousin. Unless you are talking about troll quadrants and even then I’m just not feeling it.”

“T-troll what?”

“... Nevermind.”

You notice Mettaton looking rather relieved. Just minutes before he was pretty tense…

_**It seems that at least someone has a crush…** _

Smiling evilly, you open your mouth.

“Rather than me, Doc, you should perhaps take into consideration another certain someone for a Papyrus ship…”

Mettaton’s eye snaps up at you startled.

“R-really? Who?”

“Oh, by the way… I heard that iron can be a good supplement for a skeleton…” You said suggestively.

“I-iron?”

“S-she is just jesting, aren’t you, darling? Clearly that isn’t the case!” Mettaton quickly said.

“Am I? I think that, as an expert, Alphys is much more qualified to know that…”

“I just don’t feel that way about him, darling. As a star my love is devoted to all my fans equally.”

“But Mettaton. I didn’t mention anything about you? I merely said that iron is a good supplement for a skeleton, to which Alphys, as a scientist, would know best, right? Are you trying to tell us something, huh, Mettaton?”

You don’t know how, but on Mettaton’s cheeks there was definitely a pink glaze that was so accentuated it could only mean one thing. He was blushing. Blushing HARD!

“… omg… OMG!!!!!!” Came Alphys voice from the intercom.

“Well now that the story is over there’s no purpose for this call! Good bye Alphys!” Mettaton said in a rushed way.

“W-wait! Met---“

But Alphys never got to finish her sentence because Mettaton hastily hung up. The silence was heavy in the room. You try to say something to lighten the mood but get cut off by the robot.

“Not one word about it, you hear, darling!!”

“Ok.” You agree simply. You didn’t intend to delve much deeper into the subject anyway. Delving into that subject would lead to attachment and that just wouldn’t do. However there was still one last thing weighing on your mind.

“Mettaton. Because I can die tomorrow I have taken care of everything in case I do. Everything… but for one last thing.” The robot, while relieved by your subject change, had no idea what to say to your remark. You continue. “I noticed you get along quite well with my pets. In case I die… can you take them in? If you can’t keep them all then at least find them good homes.”

“Sure, darling. But that won’t be necessary ‘cause you aren’t going to die. Alphys’ plan is solid. You’ll see.”

“It would be ok if I did, though…” You mutter and then add at normal volume. “Thank you Mettaton.”

“With those depressing topics out of the way… I happened to notice you were writing some sort of diary earlier!”

You spent the best part of the night keeping Mettaton away from your most private thoughts. Turned out the concept of writing more than one entry in each was completely foreign to the robot and so he was extremely curious about it. He insisted on reading some ‘examples’ from your journal to guide him in such a task. Turned out he was compiling a collection of diaries.

You finally get to listen to the album he gifted you. It was good but not quite among your preferences in music. While you didn’t stick to a particular genre you were still picky within each of them. You considered his music something you could easily listen to while working on your frames but not something you would bother learning to sing.

You went over the plans again with Mettaton just to make sure you knew everything to the last lousy detail. You would go over the plans again in the morning. For now you needed to get an early rest and so did Mettaton.  
You entered your temporary room, all your pets trailing behind you automatically. You found it endearing and couldn’t help but feel a warmth in your heart that they would follow you despite all. Your pets were your only weakness and you wanted to keep it that way.

You laid down and waited for sleep to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> still no guesses as to any of the song? ówò that's sort of discouraging... BUT I SHALL NOT DESPAIR! ÒwÓ
> 
> also I sort of hint at papyton here but I'm still not sure if I put them together or make it one sided from Metts side since so far its not something i've seen done a lot.


	4. Chapter 3: A Wild Assassin Appears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's finally the day of the attack and you're ready to repay for the kindness you were shown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... no song lyrics title today... _ _" I couldn't find a fitting enough song to go with it so here, have a Pokemon reference.
> 
> Also wow! O.O I has two bookmarks and 21 kudos! For someone who just started recently that's a lot!
> 
> Thank you all. ^w^

>   
>  -Entry 26-
> 
> -Dear sister-
> 
> -So… it turns out that Mettaton was really curious about my journals. Apparently he has a diary collection but can’t understand why I wrote more than one entry in my journal.
> 
> Anyway… this might be my last entry. I guess I’ll say I don’t regret most things in my life. I just regret handing my heart and friendship to the wrong people. And I regret that the bad luck that plagues me took the lives of the right ones.
> 
> All in all, it was a reasonable life and I only wished I was able to enjoy the few good things I had, instead of dwelling on the bad ones. And if I die… I don’t really care. It’s not like anyone but my pets will miss me.
> 
> I have to go now. Bye.-  
> 

.

It seemed twice as hard to close your journal this time. Somehow the finality of your life, or the possibility of such happening, made you feel… odd. You mostly really didn’t care. Everything was arranged in case you didn’t make it so you should be fine… right? You guessed you felt the weight of your emptiness looming over you. You quickly shoved it aside and gathered your clothes.

You had opted for a plain white button up shirt, some dark gray trousers, a hooded black coat and the faded red scarf that Papyrus had given you for good luck. Rajani was still slumbering in a corner of your mind. You conjured a mental landscape to see her.

As usual your landscape was in space. Planets surrounded you, too close together than it would happen in actual space so you could see them clearly. Oddly enough white clouds floated about in the infinite looking landscape. You approached the nearest to you where Rajani slept.

As expected she was an exact copy of you (or was it the other way around?). The only difference was that, in your mental landscapes her hair was a dark vibrant red. Once upon a time you had painted your hair that color in her honor. When she had to take over six years ago she had dyed it black in your honor and in the end it was agreed you should keep it that way. The only colors you would never want for your hair would be blond because that was way too much overrated, and your original hair color.

 _Raj. Wake up._ You said, pushing her lightly. She woke up immediately and looked up at you.

_**Oh, hey, Mir. Is it time?** _

_Almost, yes. Mettaton went ahead with the pack. They’ll be waiting at the secured exit._

_**What? Couldn’t he have given us a ride to our mark?**_ Rajani protested once she realized that, outside the landscape of your mind, your body was still in the room Mettaton had given you.

_He would have drawn too much attention to us which is the last thing we need. But don’t worry. Bubbah’s cousin will takes there._

_**Ugh! Ok you’re right. I hate it when you are right.** _

_No you don’t._

_**Alright I don’t.** _

_Ready for this?_

_**Ready for this!** _

You let the mental landscape fade back into your real eyesight. Your now closed journal is still in front of you in the desk. You stood up from the desk and grabbed a black suitcase. It only looked like a suitcase. In fact, once opened it would form a physical shield. Alphys had instructed you and Mettaton via videoconference on how to make it using spare parts from Mettaton’s body. It would use the strength of your soul to fuel the shield according to her though you didn’t quite understand it. It was also imbued with a small part of Mettaton’s magic so it could cross the metal detectors.

You left the room and joined the youngster that awaited you in the living room. He was far less intimidating than Bubbah and seemed far more approachable than him too. He rode a rather beaten down red scooter and dropped you one block away from the conference grounds. You thanked him and quickly covered the distance you had left.

 

\--Frisk POV--

 

While you crossed that distance, one block away inside the conference room Frisk fiddled with their cufflinks. They didn’t understand the need for them or the fancy suit they were wearing. But mom and dad insisted on those uncomfortable clothes every time they made a public speech or something of the sort.

At the moment dad was the one talking to the crowd. Though technically Frisk was supposed to be the ambassador they were never the one who got to make the serious speeches. They were just… what had Alphys called it? …a figure head? It just meant they only really had the title and a few minor responsibilities. That wasn’t how she had put it but ‘a figure representing the hope of monster kind’ could easily be translated into that. It was mostly mom and dad who took care of everything. Even now Frisk was the one sitting in the center of the table but the one giving the speech was dad, who sat at their left. 

Beyond dad they could see a hint of Undyne’s red hair. She was pretty nervous. As she was sick and tired of claiming ‘the whole speech deal wasn’t really her thing’ and she only occasionally tagged along to make sure they were safe.

At their right sat their mom. She really didn’t like that they called Asgore dad but let them do it anyway. Frisk had begun avoiding calling him dad in front of her because of the way she flinched whenever they did it. They would still call him dad whenever she wasn’t around. They liked how emotional dad could get. Dad would look years younger whenever they did it.

Beyond mom sat Papyrus. It was pretty weird seeing him without his battle armor, especially now that he had given his scarf away, but he still looked as cool as ever, you guess. Like Undyne he didn’t attend every single time but he still made more appearances than her. He was the mascot after all.

As for Sans he wasn’t even actually sitting at the table. In fact he had pulled the chair away and tucked it behind them before sitting. Sans was the only one not wearing a suit or formal wear. Instead he wore his usual blue hoodie with a white shirt, sports shorts and fuzzy pink slippers. He’d spent the first half of dad’s speech telling them jokes and puns discretely so they wouldn’t get bored but were now sound asleep leaving Frisk alone to his boredom.

Not even dad’s speech had any appeal. Frisk had heard him rehearse it over and over again to the point that they now knew every single word of it. They wanted to distract themselves with something until the end but couldn’t because they would have their own little speech at the end.

It was something mom and dad had decided after Frisk had expressed their discontent at having close to none involvement in the serious stuff. Frisk decided to observe the crowd instead, wondering if anyone there would want to be their friend too.

It was at that moment that someone entered. It was pretty unusual for anyone to enter mid speech. Usually everyone was already there before it began so that they could hear it all. The person wore a black hooded coat with the hood up. Frisk could barely make out their face but saw enough of the chin to know it was another human. They were wearing a strangely familiar red scarf and dark gray trousers. They had a suitcase with them.

They tried to get as close to the front as possible but that wasn’t unusual. What was, however, was the fact that instead of going for the center of the stage they went to the side and, despite sparing occasional glances at the table, they seemed instead interested in the crowd.

Considering that they were the most interesting thing in the whole room Frisk kept observing them. Eventually the hooded person noticed them staring and hesitantly raised a hand for a shy wave before looking away again.

“What is it, my child?” Mom asked in a low tone, noticing Frisk waving at someone.

“There’s a weird person there. They’re funny.” They signed giggling.

“A weird person?” She asked, concerned.

“Yup, but is a good weird. They waved at me too.” They enlightened.

Dad finished his speech and gave word to them and Frisk stood up in their chair. Just as they were about to begin their short speech they noticed the hooded person running towards them while looking up at the support beams for the lights. Frisk quickly looked up thinking that perhaps one of the lights was about to fall off and instead saw a man balancing there with a riffle pointed straight at them. 

They closed their eyes as a loud ‘bang’ was heard across the room followed by the noise of panic from the crowd. There was no pain and being someone accustomed to it Frisk quickly realized they hadn’t been hit.

“GET BEHIND THE SHIELD!!!” Shouted a female voice in front of them. They opened their eyes to see the hooded person holding their suitcase open. There were several switches and cables and blinking lights inside that seemed to project a transparent silvery membrane in front of them. Occasional green and blue sparks radiated from it.

The man in the beam shot two more times but the bullets hit the membrane and fell harmlessly to the ground.

“W-what’s going on?” Mom asked confused by all the commotion.

“Assassination attempt.” Said the hooded woman curtly. She fished something from inside her right coat pocket and tossed it at them. “Kid, there’s a latch beneath that table. Open it and blow that whistle. Hurry!” They rushed to the table that mom and dad had quickly removed.

“THAT SCUMBAG!! I’M GOING TO MAKE HIM REGRET TARGETING US!” Undyne bellowed making a blue spear appear in her hands.

“NO! Leave him for the proper authorities or else the media might twist a simple case of self defense to make it seem like the whole thing was your fault.”

“BUT…”

“Don’t be stupid!”

Frisk whistled inside the hole as loud as they could and heard the echoes disperse through the darkness.

“Who are these people?” Dad asked her holding the back of Frisk's shirt so that they wouldn’t fall off.

“Long story short? People that take any means to get the end they want.” The hooded woman looked back at the trap door ignoring the confused monsters. 

 

\--Your POV--

 

While you were relieved that the group seemed unharmed and safe you knew that time was of the essence. You had let Rajani take over the moment you had spotted the shooter. You didn’t much like the harshness in her voice while talking to the group but realized it was necessary. 

“Those evil BASTARDS!” The blue fish woman grumbled.

“THERE’S NO NEED TO BE CRUDE, UNDYNE. I’M SURE THEY JUST DON’T KNOW THERE ARE BETTER WAYS TO GET WHATEVER THEY NEED.” Papyrus says.

“No really…” Rajani started.

“THAT IS WHY I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL ELUCIDATE THEM.”

Just before Papyrus could go on his misguided come-to-jesus talk, a large black dog jumped up from the trap door distracting him. It was soon followed by another smaller dog and three cats. Several yips coming from the depths of the trap door told of yet another dog down there.

“Ok, Frisk, get down there and grab Nucha’s leash. She’ll lead you out safely. So long as you follow her lead. Everyone else grab one of the leashes that are left too.”

King Asgore helped Frisk down and then helped Queen Toriel who very reluctantly acceded, holding Artemis in her left arm. Just as the King was about to go down himself, holding Hades leash you notice that Papyrus wasn’t there. 

You realize that, though he had stopped to stare at the recently arrived animals, he had turned around to proceed with his initial intention and was about to leave the safety of the shield. 

_**Fuck!** _

Without any prior warning to Rajani you take over again and rush towards the naïve skeleton.

“PLEASE HUMANS. WHATEVER THE PROBLEM IS, I’M SURE THAT THERE IS A WAY TO SOLVE IT WITHOUT CAUSING ANYONE HARM. IF YOU WOULD JUST STOP SHOOTING I COULD GO OVER THERE AND HELP YOU RESOLVE YOUR PROBLEM.”

The attackers paused and Papyrus walked around the edge of the shield believing he had managed to reach them.

You see a red laser pointer zero in on Papyrus’s forehead. You jump across the remaining distance and feel something hit your right shoulder from behind. You quickly drag the dazed tall skeleton behind the shield again and towards the open trapdoor. For some reason your right arm is not acting regularly, like it lacks the strength. 

You shove Nix’s leash into his hands and push him inside the trap door before he could say anything while urging him to go.

“Whoa! That was pretty brave of you!”

You turn to see that the fish woman had been the one talking to you. What was her name? You knew it reminded you of waves… It didn’t matter anyway.

“Thanks, now your turn. Hurry!”

“Huh, is that supposed to happen?” She said looking at the shield. You watch as the shield appears to be faltering and shrinking.

“No.” Was it because you had stepped away from the case? Alphys did say it was fueled by your soul or something of the sort, thought you weren’t quite sure what that meant. Why was it collapsing?

You urge the woman down and suddenly feel weak. Your right arm stopped reacting to your commands at all. You look down at it only to notice the red fluid that seems to be dripping down from it. Suddenly, as if a switch had been turned, pain slams into you so hard it takes your breath away momentarily.

You grind your teeth and force yourself to focus. You turn to the remaining skeleton and gesture for him to go ahead, not trusting your voice. He takes hold of Dusk’s leash and jumps in, turning towards you from down below to help you down. You decide not to push your luck and accept his help, jumping into his arms.

For a moment, the small skeleton hugs you tighter and says. “thanks for saving my bro.” He then lets you go rather hastily and goes up ahead as if… embarrassed? You weren’t sure what to make of it and didn’t really care anyway. As soon as he had put some distance from you, you began to follow him.

You feel pretty tired but that’s to be expected. You can’t wait to get some shut eye and to heal whatever wound you have on your arm. The pain is getting more and more unbearable. Perhaps you should rest a while. It’s not like you’ll get lost… NO! Bad Miranda! You have to meet with Mettaton so that he can leave with everyone, remember?

You wonder why you are talking to yourself. Further more you wonder why Rajani hasn’t said anything in a while. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Almost there… Wait… where had the light gone? Why do you suddenly feel so heavy… wait… You see the stars. So pretty. You feel like you can almost reach out to them. You try to reach out to them but… something stops you? Oh well. What would you have done with a star anyway…? Why do you feel so light, now? You kind of like this feeling. Almost like flying. You like it. You guess you can sleep now. Yeah, that would be good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've written until chapter 12 and up until then I'm sure you'll have a chapter per week, but with university and all that I'm having trouble writing chapter 13. (Just warning the few people that read this story that there might be a few delays in the future. I owe y'all that much.) 
> 
> Thank you for reading. ^w^


	5. Chapter 4: Come Morning Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You wake up... and you gots some xplainin' to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the kudos and comments ^w^ i really appreciate it!
> 
> also back to song lyrics as titles

You watch the blue waters that surround you and look back at your grandfather in his wheelchair. _Look gramps, isn’t this awesome?_ He nods, smiling amusedly.

_**Wake up!** _

Sis was reading an informational board up ahead. Should you join her? Hmm… why not?

_**Snap out of it, Mir!** _

You turn around and see your mom pushing gramps chair towards the two of you. Good, that way you’ll remain together. You turn towards your sister again. _Surprise glomp!!!_

_**You have to wake up! Now!** _

Wake up? Why? Isn’t everything ok? Aren’t you happy? Aren’t you awake?

Suddenly you are forced forward by heat. Something hurts your leg. You scream. Help. Someone.

_**Miranda!** _

_***You call for help.** _

_***but nobody came.** _

_**WAKE UP!** _

You snap your eyes open and stare at a white washed ceiling. You are still gasping for air. At least it seems that you managed not to scream. You’re getting better at it.

After a deep breath you’re calm enough to get your bearings. You remember that you were shot and had managed to get into the tunnel. Did you faint? You must have. You don’t even remember leaving the tunnel. You do remember seeing stars. Two of them, hovering in the darkness. And you had been floating too? You guess that part must have been a hallucination. Not surprising considering the pain you felt from the shot.

You were surprised, however, that you no longer felt the gunshot wound. You raised your left hand to your right shoulder blade where the wound should be only to feel a light bump like a scar. Shit, how long were you asleep?

_**No idea. Well, everything’s ok now, yes? I’m going to take a nap. Call me if you need me. All this constant switching places has left me exhausted. Oh and, by the way, Mir…** _

_Yes, Raj?_

_**You took over to save the skele-man, rather hastily and forcefully at that.** _

_Oh! Sorr…_

_**I just wanted to say I’m proud of you.** _

_…what?_

_**Yeah. I am. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, on your own accord, do something of the sort. You have been only seeing life pass by letting it happen to you instead of taking a step towards, taking it into your hands, and control it again. Sure, the action was rather suicidal in a way but you weren’t concerned about ending it all while saving someone, like some sort of martyr. You were truly, honestly, concerned for the dude. So… I’m glad. It was as if a spark of light had ignited within us for a moment. And hey, hopefully next time it won’t be such a dramatic action.** _

_Raj…_

_**Welp, that’s all. Bye!** _

_Wait! Raj!_

And she was gone. You knew she was listening somewhere in a corner of your mind, but she would refuse to reply because of her embarrassment. In a way, acknowledging your improvements would mean acknowledging her own improvements which was something she didn’t like to dwell on. She liked to insist she was just the same as always.

You sighed feeling grateful she at least decided to voice it instead of leaving things unsaid. You take a moment to look around the room as you feel Rajani finally falling asleep. It was neat and tidy and bathed in light cream, or it would be as soon as the sun completely rose up from the horizon. You could see the sky turning lighter through the window, starting to bloom in lilacs and rose pinks towards the east. 

You notice quickly that your backpack isn’t with you. Worried you decide to stand up but you feel forced to sit back down when the room spins around you. You rest a bit before trying again. This time the dizziness doesn’t bring you down and you adjust to it. Your legs are trembling, however, like they are just barely holding your weight. 

You feel pretty weak but decide to ignore it. You need to see where your pets are and find out where exactly you are. Initially you had thought hospital but this room was far too homey for that. You also notice you are wearing some sort of sleeping gown. It was light purple and too large for you. At least you approve of the color.

In a shaky stride you finally reach the door and quietly turn the knob and open it. The hinges creak a bit. It was barely audible, or it would be in normal circumstances. In the eerie silence of the sleeping… House? Mansion? Building? Whatever! In the silence the sound stood out much more than regularly and it freaked you out a bit.

You padded your way across the hallway and found yourself front to front with a flight of stairs. You had passed by several rooms but felt it would be rude to peek inside in search of your pets so instead you climb down the stairs. It is clear now you are in some mansion of sorts. You manage to find the living room with a massive TV showcased in the wall and two large couches. You consider waiting there for someone to show up but, when your stomach growls at you, you put the idea aside and search for the kitchen. It doesn’t take you long to find it and you reluctantly search the cabinets for your breakfast options. There are several kinds of cereal boxes, recipes for waffles and pancakes, several sorts of jams… these people sure know what’s good. You end up deciding on some healthy fruit. You don’t feel comfortable eating anything else without permission.

You take the glossy red apple with you to the living room and sit on one of the couches. You curl yourself into a ball tucking your knees under your chin as you take a chunk out of the apple.

The family photos displayed in the living room tell you this is not just a random mansion. They tell you this is the Ambassador’s mansion. You take a moment to watch the photos. You didn’t really get a good chance to observe anyone aside from Mettaton. Most frames featured pictures that had Frisk as center piece. On most of them Frisk wore a striped blue and magenta shirt and jeans but there were several in which the brown haired squinty eye eleven year old wore a suit but looked uncomfortable. He must really love that shirt. Also surprisingly most of the pictures had Frisk carrying a… flower pot? 

Second most featured was Queen Toriel. In many she was dressed in a purple ankle length toga with the royal crest but she had a far bigger variety of clothes, most of them dresses. In all her pictures her white fur seemed so soft and perfectly coifed and you can’t help but wonder if she looks just the same face to face.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so much, King Asgore had very few photos in which he appeared. He was most likely the person taking most of the pictures. There was one picture in which he was wearing some sort of royal cape that covered him completely from his tall broad shoulders down to the floor, but in most of them he wore Hawaiian shirts and shorts.

You fell too intrusive while watching so you focused instead on the window to wait for someone to wake up. The longer you wait there the more uneasy you feel. You really should leave. You don’t want to get involved with any of them. Your life is already messy enough as it is. And your pets? They’d be better off without you anyway. 

As soon as you get up to leave you hear footsteps on the stair. You retreat back further into the room not wanting to be seen yet. Whoever passed by went into the kitchen and you sigh in relieve. Wait… Why are you so nervous about anyway? You should just grow a pair and go out there to greet whoever that person was. God dammit, why are you so socially awkward!? You wish Rajani would trade places with you. At least she doesn’t care how she is perceived. You however… not so much.

You finally force yourself to take a step outside the living room and peek into what you can see of the kitchen. You see a bit of a purple gown and some white fur meaning it was definitely Queen Toriel. Not quite who you wanted to meet right away but still… Hesitantly you walk towards the kitchen preparing to knock on the open door to call her attention instead of scaring her but, before you could, you hear the thundering sound of massive paws echo through the house. Oh no…

You hardly get time to prepare when you are tackled by a massive hound. Your massive hound, in fact, that proceeds to bathe you in his tongue’s slobber. You are too weak to fight back and don’t have your whistle to order him off so you did the only sensible thing. You protested his ministrations of affection while covering your face with your arms. Dog slobber was so gross. That’s why you liked cats better.

Not satisfied with just licking, Hades started barking and whining in happiness.

“Shhh! Calm down. Hades! You’re going to wake up the whole house, you silly goose!” You said while trying to get off from underneath him. He took your struggles as playing and became even more enthusiastic. This was really a bad time to feel so sore.

You could only groan when two more sets of tongues joined Hades’s.

“Staahp!” With renewed strength you wriggled from underneath Hades and sidestepped Iris and Nucha.

Hades went to jump on you again and you jumped forward, making him falter for a bit and he stepped back. You quickly circled around him and trapped his torso between your knees. This would allow you to control his jumps. Nucha, being of short stature couldn’t jump high, but Iris seemed to want to climb you. You were forced to hold her down with a hand while you petted Nucha until she was calm again.

“There, there. No Jumping. Did ya miss me? Did ya? Who are mah babies? Who? That’s right. You are. You are my big, slobbering, hairy babies.” You said using baby talk to the three of them. Finally they calmed down and you sat back down on the floor, feeling worse for the wear.

Only then did you notice you had an audience. Queen Toriel had come out of the kitchen and watched your antics amusedly, on the stairs you could see Papyrus in a light orange flannel pajama featuring pale yellow clouds and the fish woman in a black tank top and sports shorts watching, who immediately started laughing at your embarrassment and right on the last step down you saw Ambassador Frisk, again holding a flower pot, who was smiling amusedly too.

You flushed red and hid your face behind Hades’s body.

“S-sorry for waking you up…”

“WORRY NOT, SKINNY HUMAN. YOU HAVE NOT AWOKEN US SINCE WE WERE ALREADY AWAKE. I, HOWEVER, WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF YOU ARE FEELING BETTER TODAY.” Papyrus said sounding concerned on the last sentence.

“Yes, my child, I would like to know if my healing magic worked properly. I haven’t really needed to use it on humans so severely injured so far.” Said Queen Toriel.

So they had used magic to heal you? No wonder you aren’t hurting as bad as you ought to. You wonder how that works.

“Yes, thank you. I still feel a bit sore but that might be from overexerting. How long was I unconscious?”

Frisk set the flower pot down and signed something with his hands. Crap, you didn’t know ASL.

“Huuuuuh… Wha…?”

“He said ‘you slept a whole day’, you brain dead idiot.” Said the… flower!? Frisk flicked one of the flower’s yellow petals making it yelp.

“Ok…” You rub your temple not being quite sure what to do now. You should leave, right? But you didn’t want to be rude either. Gosh why did you have to be so damn awkward!

“Hey the whole chitchat deal is nice and all but I’m really hungry. And I’m willing to bet this punk is too. SO LET’S CHITCHAT OVER BREAKFAST!” Said the fish woman pointing at you.

Before you could react to her enthusiastic words she picked you off the floor fireman style and carried you to the kitchen. This whole action didn’t make anyone bat an eye as if it was the most usual thing ever to just pick up a stranger, in the literal sense, and just drag them to the breakfast table.

You were literally dropped on your seat and Frisk sat next to you with their mythical talking flower, Papyrus sat next to Frisk and Undyne, whose name you had finally remembered, sat on your other side. Everyone was talking cheerfully about what Queen Toriel should make for breakfast. Just as they had finally reached a consensus of pancakes a yellow dinosaur woman in a cute night gown featuring some sort of cat eared anime character entered the kitchen. You recognized her from the video conference where she had instructed you on how to make the shield. You waved shyly to Dr. Alphys and she waved back just as shyly, choosing to sit on the other side of Undyne.

Just as King Asgore, who had a bath robe on top of his pajamas, came down to join them, Papyrus decided to go upstairs again to wake his brother. Frisk got up and went to sit in King Asgore’s lap as soon as he was seated. Because you couldn’t keep with their conversation because of ASL, the flower didn’t seem to want to talk anyone, and since Toriel was busy cooking you decided to listen in on Dr. Alphys’s and Undyne’s conversation. They were currently discussing which anime to watch next. You smiled.

“What kind of anime do you like?” You asked.

“Y-you watch anime?” Dr. Alphys asks in return.

“Sure do… or did. Haven’t watched in a big while.”

“What anime did you watch?” Asked Undyne.

“Whoa at the top of my head I can only remember a few right now. I watched Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto, Rurounin Kenshin, Sakura Card Captors, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Kaitou Saint Tail, Lovely Complex… but my fave so far is Skip Beat… or at least the manga is. The anime ended WAY too soon. And it doesn’t really count as anime but I also watched RWBY.”

“So many. W-what about Mew Mew Kissy Cutie?”

“Do you mean Tokyo Mew Mew?”

“N-no.” She said pointing at her night gown.

“Oh! Then no, I haven’t.”

“Y-you really should. It has a d-deep message. It’s about how it’s wrong to abuse your powers and… oh no I was about to spoil it!”

“If you’re into deep messages then you should check out Skip Beat. It’s about how Kyoko overcomes heartbreak and betrayal and becomes a better and more fulfilled person by finding a work she loves and making friends and finding love again oh and also learning to forgive her mom and… now I’m the one spoiling…”

“You’re both complete nerds!” Undyne says.

“Well aren’t you into anime too?”

“I’m into it for the kickass weapons and the action and badass characters.”

“Perhaps you could check RWBY out. If there’s anything that show doesn’t lack is kickass weapons. The main protagonist wields a massive sniper rifle scythe.”

“I SEE THAT UNDYNE IS ALREADY BEFRIENDING THE SKINNY HUMAN. ALPHYS TOO. WELL I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL NOT BE SURPASSED BY YOU. I TOO SHALL BEFRIEND THE HUMAN.” Papyrus had returned from his quest to get his brother who dragged himself in rubbing his eye sockets, wearing grey sweat pants and a white t-shirt.

Papyrus sits in what used to be Frisk’s chair next to you and his brother sits beside him.

“SO, SKINNY HUMAN, DO YOU LIKE SPAGHETTI?”

“Yes...?”

“WOWIE! WE ARE ALREADY OFF TO A GOOD START ON OUR FRIENDSHIP! TO CELEBRATE THIS IMPORTANT LANDMARK I SHALL NOW MAKE MY FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI FOR YOUR BREAKFAST.”

“Sorry Papyrus, but the pancakes are ready.” Queen Toriel announces staring to distribute the stacks of pancakes to all of them. Papyrus acknowledged that it would have to wait for another day but you could see he was very disappointed. 

You couldn’t help but giggle at Papyrus’s antics. You never knew he could be this cute.

“it’s ok, bro. i’m sure she can’t wait _fiore_ a chance to break her _rotini_ and try some of your spaghetti. ”

“SANS! NO PUNS ALLOWED AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE!”

“c’mon, bro, _throw me a bone_ here. only an _impasta_ would pass up the opportunity for some puns. ”

“MY BREAKFAST IS RUINED!”

You couldn’t help it and burst laughing. You tried to hold back because the puns clearly bothered Papyrus but you still couldn’t help it. Queen Toriel laughed briefly too.

With the last plate of pancakes placed on the table, Toriel finally sat and suddenly the table quieted. You too remained silent sensing that it was time for a far more serious topic of conversation. So far you had been somewhat antsy at how no one seemed to bat and eye at your presence, as if you already belonged. But only a fool would let their guard down and Rajani raised no fools. Save them you did…but a stranger you were still.

King Asgore cleared his throat. You vaguely noticed Frisk was now in Toriel’s lap but your attention was centered on the king.

“I would like to thank you on behalf of all of us for what you did for us yesterday. Mettaton and Alphys have relayed to us what transpired. Your bravery saved our lives and for that we can’t thank you enough. But…” You instinctively tensed. “Even though it might be rude, we need to ask you several things about how you acquired information on the attack.”

You knew it was coming. After Mettaton had told you he had talked to Alphy while you were in your temporary room you knew. You knew he had asked her to confirm it for him. And you knew that she would realize the truth. You took a deep breath and steeled yourself. If Rajani weren’t ‘sleeping’ you were pretty sure she would make a pokemon joke like ‘Miranda used harden… … it’s not very effective’ and would give you advice. But she was ‘resting’ right now and you couldn’t keep hiding behind her forever. Sure, she was faking it but she wasn’t anything but a dedicated performer.

“I’m not as knowledgeable as you might have been lead to believe but I will answer as best as I can, your Majesty.” You said slowly staring at the pancake in front of you. You could feel the stares from the whole table directed at you and they made you nervous.

“Just Asgore is fine. And there’s not need to be so tense, young one. Have some tea. This is not an interrogation.”

You hear Undyne release a low sarcastic ‘Yeah right!’ mimicking your exact thoughts but you remain calm (outwards at least) and composed.

“Thank you, Asgore.” You pick up the cup and took a sip. It needed way more sugar but aside from that it was the right temperature and it tasted good enough. You gather some courage and stare at the king’s face. “Please ask away.”

“Well from what you said to both Mettaton and Alphys you overheard the plot being discussed, is it right?”

“Yes, I did tell them that.” You worded carefully so you wouldn’t lie now.

“However that information might not be… accurate…” The king faltered. It was obvious he felt uncomfortable accusing you of lying after you saved his life. You waited for him to ask his next question but instead Undyne spoke up.

“What king Fluffybuns here means is that there’s no way you could have known that, aint it right, babe?” She said putting an arm over Alphys shoulder. 

The yellow lizard blushed profusely and then spoke up.

“Y-you see… T-the group you m-mentioned… t-they don’t r-really t-talk… you know… outside t-the internet.” She said, uncomfortable with the attention.

“Yes, I am aware.”

“T-then how…”

“I lied about overhearing it. I thought it might be easier for you to believe me if I did say that. Also, less illegal since I did hack into the group chat.”

“Could you please tell us how you came across that site, my child?” Queen Toriel chimed in. Her tone was gentle meaning she was giving you the benefit of the doubt.

“I’ve known about them for a while. I didn’t come across them by mistake. I searched for them.”

“any reason why you were following their site?” The small skeleton (what was his name, again?) asked.

“My reasons are private and unrelated to monster kind.” You said tersely gazing at your plate again, to avoid eye contact. Last thing you wanted was to think about what they had done to you.

“ya gonna have to be a bit more specific than that, kiddo.” Your eyes snap up at him.

“Like I said, my reasons are private. I’ve known about them way before you guys came up from the underground. And now for the question you are too afraid to ask: Am I cooperating with them or allied to them in anyway? No, my connection with them is the opposite from the friendly kind. Also, as Dr Alphys can and probably will verify, their objectives are not exclusively centered on monsterkind. However…” You look at Dr Alphys and Asgore. “…I would advise you against pursuing them legally or any other way for you might put others in danger. That’s not to say…” You snap at Undyne who was about to talk. “…that you can’t keep tabs on them in case they strive to strike again. I would in fact advise you to do so. But as for any other measure… it might not be… safe.” You look back down at your plate.

The room is silent as they monsters and human digest what you just said.

“How can we be SURE you aren’t secretly siding with them if we don’t know your motivations?” Undyne asked. 

“UNDYNE, I’M SURE THE SKINNY HUMAN ISN’T LYING TO US ABOUT THAT. SHE DID SAVE US, AFTER ALL.”

“No. She is right to doubt me. I’m not offering you any reason for you to believe me, after all.” You said. You are grateful that Papyrus believes in you. It’s been a long time since anyone has put faith in you and it makes you feel strangely warm inside. You feel your eyes burning but you won’t cry so easily. You look at Undyne who is rather surprised you called yourself out on your own bullshit. “I really don’t want to talk about what they did that makes me hate them, but I can say this much: Several people died but somehow I survived.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter we get Sans' POV ;)


	6. Chapter 5: Fills my Head with Dreams and Lightening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see things from a different perspective. ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments and kudos guyz. I'm so happy!!!

\--Sans POV--

“BROTHER! WAKE UP! THE SKINNY HUMAN IS AWAKE AND EVERYONE WANTS TO EAT BREAKFAST!” 

He had just glimpsed the red of his brother’s scarf waving in the snow when his voice made him bolt up, waking him from the familiar nightmare. 

He couldn’t believe he had fallen asleep. Not after the way things had gone yesterday. Not after he had almost seen his brother die in front of him… again. Cursing at having fallen asleep despite trying not to, he dragged himself out of the bed as he realized exactly what Papyrus had said. The human! He opened the door to see his brother standing there getting ready to knock again.

“YOU… GOT UP!?” Papyrus said surprised at how fast Sans had gotten out of bed. “IT SEEMS MY LECTURES ARE FINALLY WORKING! AS EXPECTED OF ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, TO FINALY MOTIVATE MY BROTHER TO AN EARLY START TO THE DAY! THIS DESERVES A CELEBRATION!”

“nah, bro. wouldn’t want to outshine the human.”

“OH, YOU ARE QUITE RIGHT! I AM ALREADY GREAT EVERYDAY. SURELY THE SKINNY HUMAN DESERVES A MOMENT OF GREATNESS FOR SHE COULD NEVER BE AS GREAT AS I!” Papyrus said dragging him out of the room and down the hall.

As he dragged his feet on the thick hallway carpet he remembered the way things had gone the previous day. He remembered how he had woken up from his nap at the conference abruptly at the sound of gunshots. He had been so confused at first but as he had realized what was happening he also noticed someone else was already taking care of the situation.

He hadn’t recognized the slim human woman at first. He did find her voice and aura familiar but it wasn’t until she’s turned around to answer Asgore’s question about who those people were that he recognized his brother’s scarf around her neck. As he had tried to place her in his memories he couldn’t help but admire the way the woman took charge of the situation. He still couldn’t see her face. Perhaps if he could he would recognize her.

And then Papyrus had decided to talk to the humans shooting at them. Before Sans had time to panic a large black dog jumped out of the open trapdoor, thankfully distracting his brother. Along with it came another dog, who landed on top of him, and three cats. It was one of those cats that finally made everything click in his memory.

That cat had been the one that had stopped him ad Papyrus a month back on a late afternoon. It kept meowing and running up ahead and returning as if trying to get them to follow it.

Papyrus had decided it was trying to show them something while Sans was more skeptical but had agreed to follow it. As long as Paps was happy who was he to complain? And that was when they heard the screams. They were silenced by the time they got near enough and that’s when he saw who had caused them.

That’s when he had seen the humans. One look at the aura radiating from the two men and he could tell they were bad news, especially when he saw how much LV they had. The woman however, had the dimmest soul he had seen. Its aura was a grayish blue and he hardly could get a good read on it. Sans let Papyrus take the lead but remained attentive in case he needed help. 

When both human men moved to attack him, Sans prepared to dunk their asses but stopped in his track when he felt the woman’s aura change. Now it was completely gray. The woman had jumped at the man to the left and her aura changed again to grayish blue.

Sans had never seen that before and couldn’t help but stare. 

After they had run the men off they waited for the woman to wake up. Sans was surprised to see her aura going back to complete gray. He couldn’t help but wonder what her soul looked like and what all that gray meant. Human souls where supposed to have colors. They didn’t always have to be bright colors, but they had to be colorful. Black, white and gray weren’t colors that human souls were meant to have.

When the woman had woken up with a pun she seemed rather confused at both their reactions clearly meaning it wasn’t intentional. Just as a moment of clarity hit her Sans saw the aura flickering back and forth between the colors again. And he couldn’t help but stare at her chest trying to see the soul, knowing full well that for seeing the actual soul he would need to pull it out, which he couldn’t exactly do for several reasons. Souls were such intimate things after all.

The woman had gone missing with Papyrus’s scarf when they had been distracted for a moment and now here she was, saving them. He couldn’t help but stare at her as she watched Asgore climbing down the hole after Frisk and Tori.  
And then she looked away and her grayish blue aura changed to dull gray again, but this time another color flickered within the gray. It was so fast Sans couldn’t read what color it was. It was something light like orange, yellow or green, but he couldn’t be sure.

He couldn’t help but follow her with his gaze as she dashed away and it was then that he realized why she was running. He watched, paralyzed with dread, as she ran towards his brother who was leaving the safety of the shield, still intent on talking to the human men attacking them.

He couldn’t help but have a flashback to a previous timeline where his brother’s dust scattered white in the wintry weather, as pure as the snow around him, his abandoned scarf flagging in the wind as a murderous child walked away giggling madly, a knife glinting in their hands. He was frozen stiff in grief now as he was then…

And then the woman jumped in front of Papyrus taking the bullet that was meant for him, dragging him out of the bullets’ way and into the trapdoor.

It took some time for Sans to recover from the shock of almost seeing his brother die again but when he did he noticed the woman pointing to the trapdoor while looking at him and he realized he was the only one there yet. He also realized the barrier that kept them safe was disintegrating and the woman wasn’t using her right arm.

Her right hand was bloodied and there was a glint of pain in her eye, though she seemed hell bent on not letting it show. He climbed down with the tortoise cat following suit and held his arms up to help her down. After a slight hesitation, she jumped.  
She was so light. And so thin it was almost like she was fragile. He could hardly believe someone so light and frail had stood between Papyrus and a bullet. How had she not shattered apart? He held her tighter. And then he thanked her, feeling tears gathering in his eye sockets.

And then… he could still hardly believe what had happened then.

Just as they were about to reach the end of the tunnel he noticed her stop and when he looked back he found her leaning against the wall looking dazed. She was clearly about to faint.

-|-|-|-|-

Sans ran towards her catching her just as she began falling forwards. She looked up eyes so dazed he wondered if she was really seeing anything at all.

“Look, stars… so pretty…” She said. He started to look around confused only to see her lifting her arm towards his face. wha… “I can almost touch them…”

He grabs her wrist just as she is about to touch his eye socket.

“Oh well, what would I have done with a star anyway…” She drops her arm. He uses his magic to lift her in the air, feeling beads of sweat in his forehead as he blushes. Were the stars she was talking about… his eyes?

-|-|-|-|-

He shook his head as he felt himself blushing again. This was not the time to be daydreaming, especially about something a human woman said about his eyes. He supposed he could understand the comparison. His eye sockets were black and the pinpricks that served as his pupils glowed white, even in the dark, but still… to call them stars…

He and his brother were now climbing down the stairs and he reminded himself he could not trust the human woman just yet. Not after what Alphys had told them about the group that attacked them. How could she know? Mettaton had told them her name was Miranda but was that even the truth?

They had decided to bring her back to the mansion. Papyrus and Tori healed her wounds and let her rest in one of the several empty rooms. Frisk decided to keep Miranda’s pets with them for the night. The group felt split about what to think about the woman herself. Tori, Paps and Frisk had obviously decided to trust her, Sans and Undyne not so much. Asgore and Alphys were pretty much indecisive.

That was why Sans felt sort of surprised when he and Papyrus entered the kitchen to find you chatting casually with Alphys and Undyne.

“Perhaps you could check RWBY out. If there’s anything that show doesn’t lack is kickass weapons. The main protagonist wields a massive sniper rifle scythe.” That was the first thing Sans heard her say. Alphys was rather relaxed at the conversation topic. Undyne was a bit relaxed but she still had a glint of distrust in her eyes. Asgore was too busy tending to Frisk and Tori to her cooking. Flowey was left alone for the most part and seemed pretty bored. 

“I SEE THAT UNDYNE IS ALREADY BEFRIENDING THE SKINY HUMAN. ALPHYS TOO. WELL I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL NOT BE SURPASSED BY YOU. I TOO SHALL BEFRIEND THE HUMAN.” 

Sans listened as Papyrus talked to Miranda and took a moment to further observe her. Her aura was completely gray again. She looked very much uncomfortable as she sat there. She kept twirling her black hair between her fingers showing her nervousness but she kept her light brown eyes on Papyrus. When Sans dropped a few pasta puns she laughed a full-bodied laugh finally seeming to relax a little as well.

And then everyone was seated and the silence became deafening.

King Asgore cleared his throat getting her attention.

“I would like to thank you on behalf of all of us for what you did for us yesterday. Mettaton and Alphys have relayed to us what transpired. Your bravery saved our lives and for that we can’t thank you enough. But… Even though it might be rude, we need to ask you several things about how you acquired information on the attack.”

She didn’t seem surprised by the question but she had tensed significantly.

“I’m not as knowledgeable as you might have been lead to believe but I will answer as best as I can, your Majesty.” 

“Just Asgore is fine. And there’s no need to be so tense, young one. Have some tea. This is not an interrogation.”

“Yeah, right!” Undyne mumbled sarcastically. Miranda didn’t react.

“Thank you, Asgore.” And after a pause. “Please ask away.”

“Well from what you said to both Mettaton and Alphys you overheard the plot being discussed, is it right?”

“Yes, I did tell them that.” The was something odd about the way she had phrased that but he couldn’t quite put his phalanges on it.

“However that information might not be… accurate…” 

“What king Fluffybuns here means is that there’s no way you could have known that, ain’t it right, babe?” Undyne interrupted and Alphys spoke up timidly. 

“Y-you see… T-the group you m-mentioned… t-they don’t r-really t-talk… you know… outside t-the internet.” 

“Yes, I am aware.” She answered calmly which was odd. How could someone who looked so nervous minutes before suddenly be so calm as she’s being interrogated? Her aura even showed how nervous she was inside. Sans was rather surprised she hadn’t denied it. Most humans would have tried to cover up their lies instantly.

“T-then how…”

“I lied about overhearing it. I thought it might be easier for you to believe me if I did say that. Also, less illegal since I did hack into the group chat.” Yeah, right! Like Sans would believe that. Why was she so nervous, then? At least she had tried to come up with a believable excuse, he supposed.

“Could you please tell us how you came across that site, my child?” Tori chimed in giving her the benefit of the doubt.

“I’ve known about them for a while. I didn’t come across them by mistake. I searched for them.”

“any reason why you were following their site?” Sans asked no longer able to hold back his distrust.

“My reasons are private and unrelated to monster kind.” She said, clearly avoiding his eyes, body instantly stiff. _Yeah, that’s not going to fly with me._

__

“ya gonna have to be a bit more specific than that, kiddo.” 

__

“Like I said, my reasons are private. I’ve known about them way before you guys came up from the underground. And now for the question you are too afraid to ask: Am I cooperating with them or allied to them in anyway?” She glared at him. “No, my connection with them is the opposite from the friendly kind. Also, as Dr Alphys can and probably will verify, their objectives are not exclusively centered on monsterkind. However…” she then looks at Dr Alphys and Asgore. “…I would advise you against pursuing them legally or any other way for you might put others in danger. That’s not to say…” She interrupts Undyne who was about to talk. “…that you can’t keep tabs on them in case they strive to strike again. I would in fact advise you to do so. But as for any other measure… it might not be… safe.” 

__

After another moment of silence Undyne finally asks

__

“How can we be SURE you aren’t secretly siding with them if we don’t know your motivations?” 

__

“UNDYNE, I’M SURE THE SKINNY HUMAN ISN’T LYING TO US ABOUT THAT. SHE DID SAVE US, AFTER ALL.”

__

“No. She is right to doubt me. I’m not offering you any reason for you to believe me, after all.” Her aura brightens a bit, still in the same gray color, at Papyrus’s demonstration of trust. “I really don’t want to talk about what they did that makes me hate them, but I can say this much: Several people died but somehow I survived.”

__

Her tone as she said that seemed as if she would have rather have died instead of surviving. Before he could process that odd fact, Frisk started signing. 

__

“Was your helping us just a part of revenge against the bad guys?”

__

Miranda looked at them and then at Flowey who seemed to not want any part in the conversation and was instead busy eating the pancakes. Realizing she didn’t understand ASL Sans translated roughly what the kid had said.

__

“Oh! No, I don’t really want to mess with them, hence why I wore a hooded coat. There’s no saying what they might do if…”

__

“So you just helped us out of the kindness of your heart? Yeah, right! As if any of you disgusting humans could think of anyone but yourselves! You probably had a reason for helping us, don’t you?” Flowey finally joined the conversation but only because he was done eating.

__

“You are quite right. I did have a reason for helping. I’m not a saint nor do I believe in absolute good. I assume neither Mettaton nor Alphys shared my reasons for helping yet…?” Sans, Undyne and Asgore tensed. This was the part where the human would ask for some sort of favor in return.

__

“O-oh! N-no. Not yet.” Alphys replied.

__

“A month back I was… attacked. They were going to do more than kill me. I was saved by Papyrus.” She told impartially. It was as if she was telling something that happened to someone else. That was odd. It was as if she was dissociating from what had happened. “I’m not sure if you remember…”

__

“OF COURSE I REMEMBER, SKINNY HUMAN. THE GREAT PAPYRUS NEVER FORGETS A POTENTIAL FRIEND. BUT… I DO RECALL MY BROTHER BEING THERE TOO.”

__

“He was but, at least while I was still awake, he did nothing but stare at my…” She blushed at something she remembered leaving everyone, himself included, confused. Then she snapped out of it. “Never mind! What matters is that you saved me. Several people just passed by as if it had nothing to do with them, ignoring my pleas for help. Had you not helped me then I wouldn’t have helped now for more reasons than one. The obvious one: I would be dead. But in the case I hadn’t, by some miracle, died, I simply wouldn’t have cared. You all may consider me shallow for it but… I just… felt… numb, I guess.” She took a deep breath and looked at Papyrus straight in the eyes, seeming to ignore everyone else in the room. “When you helped me, you reminded me. You reminded me that despite all there are still people capable of kindness out there. People capable of saving others for no reason other than just because they can.”

__

Sans saw as her eyes became wet with unshed tears. Her gray soul flickered again with color but once again Sans couldn’t see what color it was. After a short pause she continued.

__

“It’s been so long… so long since anyone was kind to me. Since anyone cared. I started to believe that such a thing didn’t exist in this world anymore. It felt hopeless. So… you didn’t just save my life that day. You saved me. All of me. And that is why today... er… I mean, yesterday. That was why yesterday I was able to care too. So… Thank you. Really. Thank you. Very, very much.”

__

Miranda then quieted looking embarrassed for her outburst and shoved a forkful of pancake in her mouth avoiding everyone’s eyes.

__

“WOWIE!” Papyrus said blushing orange at her earnestness. “YOU ARE QUITE WELCOME, SKINNY HUMAN, BUT THERE IS NO NEED TO THANK ME! AFTER ALL, IT WAS ONLY EXPECTED OF ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, TO HAVE SUCH AN EFFECT ON YOU. HOWEVER I MUST THANK YOU TOO, FOR YOU PUT YOURSELF AT RISK TO SAVE MY LIFE. THANKFULLY YOU HAVE SUCH A HIGH AMOUNT OF HP.” Sans couldn’t help but flinch at Papyrus’s use of the term HP. It was something most humans were unaware of and perhaps that was for the best.

__

“HP? What is that?” Miranda asked twisting her eyebrows into a confused frown.

__

“I-it stands for Hit P-Points. Y-your amount is r-rather h-high. F-for a human I m-mean!” Alphys said.

__

“Huh… ok?”

__

“hp is sort of related to your health, the more you have, the harder you are to kill. And with 2058 hp it would be necessary a ton of hits to kill you. a _skele-ton_ , you could say.” Sans added. Might as well explain it further since she already knew and the conversation was certainly in need of one of his puns to lighten the mood. She giggled a bit. It was a wary giggle but a giggle none the less so Sans counted it as a victory.

__

He was still unsure about Miranda, mainly because he couldn’t get a good reading on her soul, but after her heartfelt speech, and Sans could tell it was heartfelt due to how her aura had reacted, he felt better about her presence there. There was just one thing bothering him about her stats. Her EXP. It was at 1. And there was only one reason for that. She had killed someone.

__

“2058!? That’s… certainly a lot? What’s the usual amount?”

__

“Well, child… Frisk has only 20, but they are just a child. Most adults we met go from 300 to 500.” Tori explained. For some reason Miranda seemed dissatisfied at that. “Is something wrong, my child?”

__

“Huh? Oh! No, no. I just… that’s way too high! Why do I have so much?”

__

“W-well the amount of HP d-depends on the individual. I w-would guess yours is n-naturally high from b-birth but there are o-other ways to increase HP.” Alphys said.

__

Miranda didn’t ask for more information on her HP. From then on the conversation became far more relaxed. Even Undyne had accepted Miranda’s outburst as truth and was now questioning her about the RWBY thing he had overheard when he entered the kitchen as Alphys talked about Mew Mew Kissy Cutie and something called Skip Beat.

__

Miranda was back to looking uncomfortable as if she wasn’t used to talking to people and considering her words to Papyrus that was probably true. She talked a bit to everyone but mostly seemed to be trying to disappear and stay out of the most conversation topics she could. She did compliment Tori’s pancakes and seemed pretty at ease with Frisk and Papyrus and wasn’t overly bothered by Flowey’s mean spirited comments and took them in stride, like she was used to insults.

__

By the end of the meal she was already excusing herself to go home despite some protest on Frisk’s, Papyrus ‘s and Undyne’s part. She quickly changed back to her own clothes and returned Papyrus’s scarf. She seemed to freeze up when he gave her a _bone crushing_ (hehehe) hug. She finally left with her animals leaving an uneasy Sans behind.

__

“So, what’s your verdict, Sans?” Asgore asked.

__

He was one of the few monsters who knew he could read the souls’ aura, hence why he had elected him to pass judgment on the kings visitors in the underground, especially visitors of the human persuasion.

__

“to be honest, i couldn’t get a very good reading on her.” Sans grudgingly admitted. No one could really tell how much that upset him. He did have a heck of a poker face, after all.

__

“How so?” Tori asked curious. She hadn’t known about his soul reading powers until they’d left the underground. She had long left the king by the time Sans had gotten the job as judge and had only met him face to face a few minutes before the barrier was broken, after all. It was all pretty new to her.

__

Sans was glad his brother, Frisk and the weed weren’t there or else he would feel the need to crack a few jokes so they wouldn’t realize the seriousness of the situation. Being a scientist, Alphys would understand the gravity of the situation and Undyne knew to remain serious in a situation where their safety could be compromised so she wouldn’t mock the unreliability of his power this day.

__

“honestly, i’ve never seen her colors before. not only that but she switched between two of them during the attack yesterday. not the first time i’ve seen her do it either.”

__

“B-but that’s impossible! No one c-can change the nature of their soul like t-that. It would be necessary a t-traumatic experience for someone’s soul t-to change colors and even t-then it would t-take a long t-time and it wouldn’t g-go back and f-forth like t-that. The only ex-xception is when a m-monster uses their magic to affect t-the soul’s p-properties, l-like when you m-make them heavy by t-turning them blue o-or when Undyne t-turns them green so they won’t escape and c-can f-form a barrier. A-are you sure you s-saw it right?”

__

“yes, i’m sure. the one thing i know for sure is that she wasn’t lying when she talked about paps. everything else could have passed for a very skilled liar but that one bit was very much true. no one it that much of a good liar to be able to fake emotions to the level of their aura.”

__

“W-well. T-that is true. B-but the soul ch-changing color is q-quite worrisome. W-what do y-you think, y-your highness?”

__

“That is indeed worrisome but as far as her character goes I think it’s safe to say we have nothing to fear from her.” Asgore said. “Undyne?”

__

“Not being able to know for sure sucks but the punk seemed good. She was pretty cool when she saved Papyrus. She seems nothing more than a kickass nerd.”

__

“I-I agree. S-she seemed pretty n-nice w-when I talked t-to her, and… I t-think she t-told the t-truth.”

__

“Well as for me, my opinion is already clear. And you, Sans?” Toriel asked.

__

Sans looked to where his brother had left the room with the kid and the flower. The fact that he couldn’t get an accurate reading on her soul worried him. Not just that but Miranda also had 1 EXP. She had definitely killed someone. But… She had saved his brother. And after living seven months on the surface Sans knew some humans were pretty vicious so maybe she had a reason for that EXP. That didn’t mean that her having an unreadable soul didn’t worry him greatly. Up until then the ability to accurately read one’s soul had been the one think he could count on. 

__

Well, it was probable they wouldn’t see Miranda again. Sure she was nice enough but didn’t exactly seem to go out of her way to befriend anyone. With some luck that would be the last Sans saw of her. He turned towards the expectant group.

__

“welp! i’m gonna go on a _limb_ here… ” He held out his arm. “and give her the benefit of the doubt. she did save my bro after all.” He said casually thought he was still worried inside. Toriel laughed as Undyne groaned which was precisely what he had intended for. 

__

With that the topic was closed and they finally relaxed fully, going about their usual routine.

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we learn a few interesting thing about Mir but are left with just as many questions. Yeah, she couldn't stay in the mansion with them and due to her (mostly Rajani's) trust issues she didn't exchange numbers with them but worry not, they shall interact again soon. Hope you enjoyed a bit of a sneak peek at Sans psyche. I hope it wasn't too OOC or or that his thought process made sense.


	7. Chapter 6: In a World so Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You go back to your place, everything's fine for a week or two... but the attack on the ambassador caused several previously peaceful groups that opposed monsters to starts attacking and killing. You witness one of those attacks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man things have been hectic. I couldn't write much these weeks. Still I can't help but feel thankful that so many people took notice of this fic. Thanks guyz. ^w^
> 
> well, onto the action, shall we?

Getting back to your sleeping spot was more complicated than you thought. You guessed it had been somewhat convenient that the planned attack and the Mettaton show you had gone to had happened in your city. Perhaps too convenient? Hmm… Nah, it was probably just a coincidence. It did make sense for an attack to occur when the king and ambassador were giving a speech to the city closest to mount Ebbot. It would have a bigger impact that way. The fact that you lived and worked there, though… It was just too strange.

The mansion, however, was definitely not convenient at all. Despite being the closest city to mount Ebbot, Auburn was still a couple of miles away and the mansion was closer to the mountain than to the city. It was nothing that a bus couldn’t fix… if you didn’t have your pets with you. As it was, you would have to walk there. 

You weren’t, by any means, a stranger to long walks. Heck you used to go for weekly, 6 mile long walks when you were back in Portugal. But today you felt so sore you just wanted to lay down and melt into the pavement but you were pretty sure your canines wouldn’t allow that. Not without a good, literal tongue lashing, anyway.

Once back in Auburn you walked towards the downtown area to your sleeping spot. Fortunately, despite being two nights away from it, not a single homeless had dared trespass into your haven. But then again it was well disguised. And you did have a reputation too. It was only natural to get one when you lived on the streets.

You had come across this place even before your attack, though it was still under construction back then. The chosen narrow alleyway used to circle completely around the two adjacent buildings, starting in the main street, turning at a right angle to the right, leading to a barely used side street. Some guy had decided to buy part of the ground floor of one of the buildings and turn it into a dingy restaurant, taking up half of the main street side of the alleyway.

By rearranging the garbage container situated in the side street area to cover the entrance to the now closed off main street side you got an improvised ‘door’ to keep the less snoopy people out of the closed off space.  
You jumped over the garbage container easily and stretched out on the dirty mattress you had stacked over several wood boxes and under a tarp you had nailed to the walls. That way at least the mattress would be dry and so would you. You personally decided to skip lunch but still fed your animals. You were too tired to leave the comfort of your sleeping spot just yet.

You couldn’t help but wonder about all those monsters you just met. Papyrus was an even bigger sweetheart than the internet led on. He was just adorable and you could never in a million years regret saving him. And, in all honesty, you were pretty sure you’d do it all again, even if it meant he was just using you. You were used to being used, after all. But somehow not even Rajani seemed to distrust the skeleton’s honesty. Well… not completely anyway, and you couldn’t ask for more.

As for Alphys and Undyne, they reminded you of two friends you had left back in Portugal, Michiru and Fifas, just as enthusiastic about anime as you used to be. You kind of missed being that girl. The one that didn’t have to live on the streets because every extra penny you earned had to be given away for your sister’s sake. You missed being able to freely talk about your multiple interests with people who knew you. 

Alphys was a sweetheart. She was incredibly shy but she really came out of her shell once anime was brought up and even forgot to stutter. And she was a massive shipper to boot. Undine, on the other hand, was loud and action driven. That’s not to say she wouldn’t join Alphys, who apparently was her girlfriend, in a good ship off, but it was clear to see she liked action much more.

Toriel was a big, huge fuzz ball of motherliness. Gentle and well-mannered but, given the steely glares she would send every so often to Asgore, it was clear she could, and would, make you regret putting her protégés in danger. Whether she had adopted them as her children, such as Frisks case, or where her close friends, like everyone else, she protected what was hers. Basically, she was a goat mom, who acted like a mother hen and would turn into a mother bear when angry. Talk about animal mix.

Asgore seemed very nice and kind which was odd. Normally kings in the human category seemed to mostly enjoy their power over others and acted like they were above everyone else and Asgore didn’t seem to be like that at all. He talked about his subjects like they were close friends. There was an underlying uneasiness between him and Toriel you didn’t quite understand. It was clear enough he was very much smitten but Toriel looked at him with such anger and perhaps… betrayal? You weren’t quite sure and anyway it wasn’t any of your business.

Frisk was an adorable child, very cheerful, but at the same time he could look so… adult. Like he’d seen too much of this world but somehow still kept a positive outlook of everything. Lucky child. You wished you could have been so positive at his age.

The flower in the pot, who was aptly called Flowey, wasn’t much for conversation and had a very acerbic personality. You didn’t talk to him much and ignored whatever mean comment he would occasionally send your way.

Sans… you weren’t sure what to make of him. One moment he was staring at your boobs, then he was hugging you and thanking you for saving his brother, then he was punning away, then he was looking at you with distrust, then back to puns again. And he kept looking at you throughout the whole breakfast, making you feel very uncomfortable.

Well it wasn’t like you would be crossing paths ever again. Forewarned was forearmed after all. They wouldn’t need your help from now on and you doubted you would be meeting them at work either. Why would they need an animator, after all?

When it came time for dinner you could no longer deny your body the nutrients it needed so you stood up to go grab some junk food at the nearest McDonalds. You brought back some chicken nuggets to share with your pack and then tried to get some sleep. You had to go back to work in the morning, after all.

It took you no time to return to your regular routine. You woke up in the morning with the first bursts of sunlight, you went to the nearest public bathroom where you made sure no one was around before using the sinks to wash your hair and a wet sponge to wash your body, you got dressed, you went to work, you bought a snack on the vending machine, you spend hours drafting storyboards and helping colleagues out with their chores, you took your lunch break, you worked some more, you went to a fast food joint for dinner, you returned to your sleeping spot, and after distracting yourself by rereading one of your books for the nth time you finally tried to sleep.

Days off were an exception to the routine and you tended to spend them in a McDonalds to use the wi-fi and to recharge the few electronic items you allowed yourself to keep. Sometimes you would bust out your old laptop from your locker and do your own private projects. Aside from that you really weren’t sure what to do with yourself so you just wandered aimlessly around.

Rajani finally spoke up after three days but refused to talk about your previous conversation and would resort to making you remember the most embarrassing moments of your life to distract you from asking questions.

Three days turned into a week and a week turned into two and you were relieved that all the talk concerning the attack to the monster ambassador was finally starting to ebb away. Or maybe it was just your co-workers who were completely unconcerned since they were your ‘news outlet’ due to the lack of a television. 

You were pleased to know you hadn’t been recognized in the footage of the event. However what worried you was that, with that attack, previously quiet anti-monster groups were starting to rise up. Maybe part of the reason why the interest was beginning to ebb away was because now there were several attacks in a much smaller scale happening all around. They were mostly vandalism in monster owned stores and alike, but some home invasions were also counted but worse where the missing monsters.

While not a lot a lot of them were missing, the fact that the media hadn’t bothered much with the fact that there were monsters with completely stable lives were gone out of the blue just served to remind you of all you hated about humanity. All that had made Rajani so lustful for blood.

No matter the age, be it medieval times or ‘civilized’ world, not matter the country, no matter the social and economic standing, most humans were only happy when they were hurting other life forms. Humans, monsters, animals… who cares? So long as it’s alive and it can scream nothing else matters. Who cared if the victims were good people so long as they were different? Who cared if the victims were the kindest social group so long as they exteriors weren’t even human? Who cared if the victims were docile and had never shown any signs of aggression so long as they didn’t have the ‘human rationality’? 

You felt Rajani’s hatred burning so bright so many times. She truly hated humanity. And at times… You also found it hard to remember there were good people lurking in the rotten remains of what once was hope for equality. You tried and tried to keep all the good people you still knew in mind but right now only three remained: Michiru, Fifas and your sister.

You believed them to be good people who wouldn’t hurt you… but for a long time now you couldn’t know. You no longer trusted in your judgment when it came to people so you never felt you could fully trust in anyone, at least not anymore. Not after what happened six years ago. 

So you tried really hard to believe, but there were days in which Rajani’s distrust of everyone around got to you. You didn’t blame her for her distrust. You simply couldn’t. She felt she had failed you six years ago and felt it was on her to keep you from being hurt that way ever again. And you understood that. You understood what it felt like when you failed to protect the person or people you cared for the most.

You couldn’t hold against Rajani the fact she still couldn’t bring herself to trust wholeheartedly your remaining friends and family any more than you could hold against her for her hatred of humanity. And two years and a half on the streets had left you almost as jaded as she is when it came to humanity. That was why you were so thankful to Papyrus.

Now you had a chance to reawaken the side of you that has been comatose for a very long time.

Today was your day off again. You had planned to go to your locker. You had planned to take out your laptop. You had planned to go to the closest McDonalds. You had planned to use their wi-fi. You had planned to access the special site the organization used to plan their attacks. You had planned to see what they were planning so you could avoid those areas at all cost. You had planned to eat lunch at the McDonalds. You had planned to perhaps surf the net a little. You had planned to go buy some essentials at the cheapest market you could find. And you had planned to see what would strike your fancy after all that so you could enjoy your afternoon off.

Not in a million years would you have thought your planning would be so rudely interrupted when you had yet to even leave your mattress to proceed with your first plan of the day.

The first sign of a change of plans was when all three of your dogs stood up suddenly, eyes trained on the exit of the dead end alley, ears straining to catch a whisper of what had first alerted them. You hadn’t realized yet that your plans would change. You had woken up recently and were nibbling on some energy bars for breakfast.

The second sign came when some audible noise came from the side street your alley was connected to. Despite being an underpopulated area, noise wasn’t a strange occurrence so once again you were completely oblivious to it as you polished off the last remains of an energy bar and pondered on whether you could afford to eat another one that day or not.

It was only when you heard the ruckus move from the side street to the alley itself that it began to dawn on you there would be a change of plans. You stood from the mattress gripping your Swiss army knife with the blade out. You hid it on your sleeve hoping you wouldn’t need to resort to it and took hold of the whistle in case you needed back up. You didn’t want to fight more drunk or high hobos for your sleeping spot but you would if they didn’t leave.

And that’s when you heard a whimper. And worse: a whimper from a very young voice. A child’s voice. That was when your plans flew out of the window faster than a canary fleeing from a starved cat. You hauled yourself over the garbage container hastily and measured the situation.

There was a woman kicking what appeared to be an armless golden-yellow snake monster child who looked worse for the wear. The woman had a sadistic grin sketched on her face and seemed to enjoy every whimper and gasp the kid made. 

The kid was bruised all over and could barely open one of his eyes. You couldn’t make yourself believe that anyone would that. Your blood boiled. Rational thought fled your brain. You may have been apathetic to many things, but a child being beaten ruthlessly by an adult? Oh no, not on your watch!

You didn’t even bother to wake Rajani up, you just **ACT** ed.

You dashed towards the woman. She had just realized she wasn’t alone and began to turn towards you when your closed fist rammed her in the left temple right next to her eye. You used your momentum to spin in a circle and drop-kick the back of her head with your heel.

She was knocked out instantly and you felt tempted to give in to bloodlust but refrained yourself and went to check on the kid instead. He looked like he hadn’t had a decent rest for a few days. His striped shirt was dirty and you weren’t sure if it was from the struggle you came upon or not. He was still awake but very barely conscious.

“H-hey, kid. Stay with me. Where are your parents?”

“… gone… I ran… was followed…” _Oh god no! Please tell me they aren’t…_

“Where should I take you? Do monster have a monster hospital or can you be treated in human hospitals?” Why the hell hadn’t you researched that before?

“dunno… the undergr… had.” He was starting to fade out.

“Hey! Honey! Stay awake. Don’t fall asleep. Help me out, here! What can I do?” _fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!_

“… monster food…” You barely got to hear him but you understood and that was enough for you.

You considered taking the kid with you but he would slow you down so instead you laid him in your mattress and got ready for a mad dash across town in search of a monster shop of sorts. You turned towards your pack.

“Guard!” You ordered pointing to the kid. Immediately your cats laid around the barely conscious kid. Dusk was even licking him in an effort to keep him awake with her rough tongue.

You grabbed your purse and jumped out of your safe haven. You decided to ignore the unconscious woman for now. You found it doubtful she would search for the kid further into the alley. She would think only an idiot would hide there after she was knocked out. And that was exactly what you were counting on.

You decided to kick her after all as you passed her by. Hey, you were just a human, not a saint. And that woman was rotten to the core to hurt a little kid that much.

You ran out of the alley and headed for the main street. There were no monster stores nearby. Your only chance was going downtown where the majority of the stores were located and hope for the best.

You ran nonstop, bumping into several people. You didn’t wait until signs were green for the pedestrians to cross roads. For once you didn’t feel the need to stop for a rest.

You almost got run over by a grey car but you jumped over the hood and left the driver honking in your wake. You were pretty sure you even had accidentally bumped a police officer at some point. All that effort… only to realize it was way too soon for most businesses to be open. 

Sure, some stores that served breakfast were open at 6:30 AM but they were human stores and that was exactly what you didn’t need. Heck there even weren’t monsters about on the streets at that moment.

You considered calling any of the monsters you had met to help you out but once again you remembered you didn’t have their numbers and you had done so on purpose. Just as you were beginning to despair you spotted him, glorious and orange, and an authentic literal light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel of despair.

And even better he was holding a set of keys and was about to slide them into the lock of what was obviously a food establishment. You dashed towards him.

“Mister! Wait, please!” You yelled.

The tall flame elemental you had just spotted looked up startled, clearly not expecting to be approached at that ungodly hour in the morning, and by a human woman at that. He was dressed in a white dress shirt with a black tuxedo vest on top and black pants. He was also wearing a black bow-tie and a pair of glasses. His flames were bright orange and he looked very much confused by your sudden appearance, but ready for a fight if needed be.

“Mister! I need your help!” You stopped in front of him, gasping for air, your throat so dried and strained from your effort you could almost feel the taste of blood. You took a deep breath to calm yourself down so the man could understand you. “There’s a kid. He’s hurt. Badly! I don’t know where to take him. He told me to get him some monster food. He was close to fainting! Could you please get me something? I’ll pay!” You shove your wallet at the surprised elemental monster.

“………………….. wait here…….” He finally said in a voice that reminded you of a crackling campfire.

You felt repressed energy coursing through your legs making them tremble and if they had electricity running through them. You were pretty sure you were running solely on adrenaline by now and couldn’t allow yourself to calm down from it if you wanted to make it back without stopping. 

Finally the fire monster returned with a paper bag in his hands but instead of giving it to you he merely said. “…let’s go…”

Usually you would have argued that he had a business to attend to, that you could deal with it yourself but as it was you couldn’t afford to waste any time so after a very brief pause to absorb the information, you took the monster’s free hand and dragged him after you. You didn’t even pause long enough to realize that you were literally holding fire. You didn’t even take the time to be surprised that the fiery man had trusted your word so easily. You simply took off at a run with him in tow.

The way back didn’t take as long as your journey there because this time you knew where you were going and so you could take some shortcuts. As you finally reached your side street you slowed down. You were hearing several voices coming from the alley. You signaled the flame monster to be quiet though you doubted he needed any incentives for that.

You approached the alley listening attentively. The elemental followed you, not seeming deterred by the warning in your eyes.

“I can’t fucking believe it. You fucking lost a fucking half dead runt!? Not only that but the lil bitch knocked you out!?”

“I wasn’t knocked out by the kid, you stupid cunt! Some bitch came out of nowhere and did it!”

“What was a fucking monster lover even doing here, huh!? Ya prolly attracted too much attention, ya complete newbie!”

“Will you two stop yappering already and focus. We have an eyewitness on the run. So long as there aren’t any eyewitnesses them cops can’t prove shite and there’s one on the loose! Where d’you think the bitch took the brat?”

“How the fuck would I know? I was unconscious, ya dumbass!”

Well clearly these guys need some cops on them ASAP.

You dial 911 and hand the phone over to the flame monster.

“Take cover, I’ll distract them. You can’t go to the kid on your own. My pack will attack you if they perceive you as a threat. Tell them to hurry up.”

You turned towards the alley again and took your Swiss knife out of your pocket again.

_Raj, you know what to do._

Rajani had woken up as soon as the adrenaline had kicked in and had quickly caught up with what was going on, preferring to quietly observe what you were doing. She wanted you not to rely so much on her, but considering the situation and your lack of combat skills, adding all her bloodlust, she was pretty eager.

_**Oooh! Time to fuck some shit up. Boo yah!** _

Rajani took over and glanced back at the fire elemental who had pressed the cell phone to what should be his flame ear but was still looking at you seeming rather impressed as well as worried.

“Just so you don’t freak out… I’m going to get psychopathic-like scary. It’s sort of psychological warfare.” He nodded.

With a wide toothy grin, Rajani started walking towards the alley entrance, striding with a confidence neither of them had. Sure, after the attack you had gone to some self-defense classes but… you were pretty sure you couldn’t take on three people. Rajani… not so much. She felt that so long as she attacked wisely she could hold on for a big while.

With the small Swiss knife hidden within your fist Rajani walked into alley, wide creepy grin in place.

“Were you looking for me?” Rajani asked in a calm and unnerving tone that echoed in the alley despite the low volume.

“YOU! You’re the bitch that attacked me!”

“Bingo! Give a prize to Captain Obvious over there! Now, with that out of the way… I can’t help but feel that your blood would make a very fine breakfast for me today.”

“Shut your trap!”

The three of them pounced. Rajani sidestepped them easily enough and even managed to punch the female in the shoulder with the blade sticking out. It wasn’t a mortal wound but painful none the less. It wasn’t to Rajani’s taste to just maim, not kill, but you had made her promise and promise she did.

Rajani turned around to see the woman clutching her shoulder as the two men, one of which had a fairly sized belly, looked at her. Just like she wanted. Taking out the weakest link first. The woman was already weakened by being previously knocked out. She made a show of slowly licking your blade as if tasting any blood there, though the stab had been too quick for any blood to be sticking to the blade.

“Hmm… a little too bitchy for my tastes but will do!” She said.

In a fit of rage, the woman launched herself at Rajani, the two men following suit. Rajani lowered herself closer to the ground and dashed forward aiming for the woman’s knee, more specifically for the lower patellar tendon. This time she slashed instead of stabbing. The woman faltered and Rajani used her weight by tossing her towards the fittest of the men before her.

She took the moment of distraction to go for the chubby guy who was the second weakest. Sure he had his weight to his advantage but he was slow and she had to take the chance to weaken him before the other guy recovered.

Rajani dodged the punch the guy directed at her face and used the momentum he was stuck in to grab his arm and yank it in the opposite direction from where his body was going with all her strength. She was rewarded for her effort when the guy screamed as his humerus bone was pulled out of his socket.

Rajani took a step back to reevaluate the situation once more. The woman could barely stand and could only limp as means of locomotion. No real danger coming from her way but still a good idea to keep alert. Arms still functional even with injury.

The fatso had his dominant arm dislocated and couldn’t use it. Obviously not used to pain considering how he was whimpering on the floor clutching his shoulder. Low level of threat. 

Fit guy was pretty much unfazed by the woman’s weight regarding the toss you had preformed. No injury whatsoever. High level of threat.

But before you had to face him a police car stopped in front of the alley, trapping the three bastards in with you. As the officers got out of the car and ordered everyone to hold their hands in the air, Rajani raised hers, still smiling, and dropped the Swiss knife. The man had no other choice but to comply too and as he raised his he snarled at her.

“Dirty monster whore!”

“I wish! At least then I wouldn’t be in a six year long drought.” Rajani replied cheekily, embarrassing you in the process.

_Raj, really!? Do you need to tell everyone about my sex life!?_

_**What sex life? You don’t have any!** _

“Officers, before you take me for interrogation, I need to get help for the kid they were chasing.” Rajani said after the three thugs had been taken into one of the patrol cars.

After a curt nod from the one in charge you motioned for the fire elemental to follow you. One of the officers followed you too. You pushed the garbage container aside, along with the tarp, and ordered your dogs to stand down, letting them recognize the police officer and the monster as friends. You gently lifted the kid from the mattress and took him towards the monster. You once again ordered your pack to keep the place safe as you four exited the small alcove.

“You do know that technically I shouldn’t allow this.” The officer said motioning towards your sleeping spot. “I’ll let it slide for today.”

“Thank you mister!”

You saw the flame monster lowering a green flame towards the kid and whatever it was, reanimated the youth enough for them to wake up. The adult monster then proceeded to hand the paper bag to the child monster while still holding him. The child seemed to recognize the adult monster. He then looked from the flame man to you and gave you a trembling smile.

“Thanks, dude.” The smile alone was payment enough for all you had went through. To see that that kid had the chance to be able to share that smile with so many more people filled you with… you aren’t quite sure… but it felt good.

It wasn’t any surprise that you spent most of your day in the station. The monster, whose name was Grillby, requested to go first so he could at least be in time for the rush hour at lunch time on his bar. The kid, whose name was… Monster Kid…, went next. He told the tale of how his parents had been viciously murdered by the group of three and that he only had escaped by sheer luck. He also mentioned them talking about other people regarding the monster disappearance and how they had all actually been murdered.

The haunted look in Kid’s eyes as he described what happened… that wasn’t the look a kid was supposed to have. It made Rajani’s and your blood boil. Finally your turn came. You received a minor slap on the wrist for your appropriation of public space for personal use at the end of your telling of the story. As it matched with Grillby’s and Kid’s accounts you were free to go. You watched Kid sitting on a chair talking to yet another police officer about their job. Because technically there was still no legislation regarding monster children, instead of a social worker the officers were trying to reach the monster ambassador or the king and queen.

When Kid noticed you, you waved goodbye and left feeling lighter with your good deed despite all the trouble you had to deal with.

It was long past lunch time and having had only an energy bar, plus some tea and crackers the officers had offered you, it was no surprise that your stomach was practically growling in hunger. Just as you reached your pocket for your wallet you realized you had shoved it at Grillby’s hands and never bothered to ask for it back.

You were so tired you considered simply returning to your sleeping spot after spending all that energy but after a quick mental debate with Rajani, who reminded you that for you to get your energy back you needed to actually eat, you finally gave in and walked towards the monster’s establishment where he was sure to be.

Fortunately the station wasn’t very far from it and only then did you read the sign over the door. Grillby’s Bar and Grill was written in neon lights, color still unknown because it was still day time, and it had large glass windows on each side of the entrance. It was clear enough the rush hour was long over, but there were still some people around, most of them monsters. 

You entered the door and walked towards the counter, immediately feeling all eyes settle on you with curiosity. Well… at least all monster eyes. The sole human couple seemed pretty oblivious to you, too busy making googly eyes at each other.

You sat on the stool and waited. As if sensing someone had just arrived, Grillby came out of a door to your left, behind the counter.

“H-Hi. I forgot my wallet.” You told him, feeling embarrassed by your mishap. 

It seemed he had forgotten he had it too. He quickly dug through his pockets and took it out handing it to you.

“Thanks. So… I haven’t eaten lunch… what do you suggest?” You ask, immediately opening your wallet in search for your money. Once you found it you realized it was just as you had left it yesterday, still untouched. You frowned slightly at it. Perhaps Grillby had forgotten to take out the money for Kid’s meal?

Grillby put a flamey hand over yours, stopping you.

“………… on the house……” He said simply.

“Oh, no! I insist on paying my meal. Also it seems you forgot to charge me for Kid’s meal too!” You quickly pointed out.

“…… You saved Kid. It’s on the house.” He said more firmly and you realized there would be no arguing with him. It still didn’t sit well with you not to pay for your expenses but you would take it.

“… Ok… But let this be the only time, ok? I… I don’t like to owe money. And I didn’t do much, really.

“………You did a lot………” The monster said making you flush in awkwardness. You weren’t used to praise.

Grillby left for a bit and the returned with a hamburger on a plate with fries to go with it. Having to eat at fast food joints daily you were pretty tired of hamburgers but even you had to say that it looked like the Michael Angelo of burgers and smelled accordingly too. Your stomach growled in agreement and you quickly took a good chunk of it into your mouth…

“Hot damn this burger is downright orgasmic!” You and Rajani said in unison as soon as you swallowed. There was no way to properly describe how it tasted. It was as if someone had taken the idea you had of the perfect hamburger and had cranked it up by a bazillion. You didn’t even feel tired or sore anymore.

You looked at the fire monster because he had gone ramrod stiff. The flames at his cheek levels were now white. Was he blushing? Then you realized what you had said.

“Oops! Sorry. Please take the previous comment as innocently as possible.” You said with your cheeks glowing red.

He chuckled at your embarrassment and said it was fine. He then asked for your drink, handed you your coca cola and went back to his duties.

The French fries were equally good. _**Never had sex as good as these fries.** Shush!_ By the end of the meal you felt fully energized and very well fed. You waited for Grillby to step out of the kitchen again so you could bid him goodbye and then you left, feeling this was the best day you had in years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we get to meet Grillby and MK. ^w^  
> I felt it would be a good thing to increase her friendships without them having to be introduced by the main monsters as their friend. I feel sorry for Kid though ó.ò It was necessary but still...


	8. Chapter 7: Looking for a Distant Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> * Grillby has joined your party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's a little shorter than usual but I thought it was important to develop Miranda's relationship with Grillbs since he is the first to actually befriend her.
> 
> And I can't believe I have over 300 hits now! (not to mention all the kudos and bookmarks and subscriptions) Thanks guyz, you dah best.
> 
> as for her feeling unconfortable with charity, recently I've had a nice old man, a vendor near the train I take to go to my university, constantly offerme free bubble gum and other stuff. sometime we actually bicker pusshing money back and forth, me to pay him and him to reject it. I guess it's funny from an outsider's POV but Not for me XD he likes that I keep him company whenever I'm waiting for the bus home after I come out of the train. I guess I incorporated this in Miranda without intending to.

Two years and seven months living in the streets and it was pretty obvious that guests aren’t a thing of common (or any kind of, really) occurrence. That was just fine by you. Whatever visitors you could eventually have usually weren’t of the guest persuasion. They were more of the ‘gimme-your-sleeping-spot-right-now-or-I’ll-beat-you-up’ kind.

As you settled back into your mattress after your extremely late lunch the last thing you expected was a visitor of any kind, let alone an actual guest, to show up late at night. 

As usual you were having trouble falling asleep. You had skipped dinner without meaning to. You had gotten so distracted with the book you were rereading for the tenth time (Harry Potter never gets old) that dinner time had come and gone by the time you had checked the time in your phone. When you had trouble sleeping you had the tendency of leaving your sleeping spot, which was covered with a tarp, to look at the bit of sky visible between the buildings. 

As usual you where searching for the stars, finding none due to the light pollution. Most nights you couldn’t even see the moon, so limited was your view of the sky. Still you looked. And then more light entered your vision, but not from the lamps above. From around the corner came Grillby lighting the alley with gentle orange flames, but still startling you.

“Oh! Good evening, Grillby. What are you doing here?” You felt uneasy with his presence there but decided to be polite anyway.

“…… Brought food……” He said holding up a paper bag pretty similar to the one he had brought Kid’s meal in. You opened your mouth but before you could comment that you weren’t a charity case he added. “…And I thought you might want to know about Kid…”

You closed your mouth again reluctantly. You were hungry, there was no denying that, but even when you had a falily and a home you disliked recieving things you didn't earn, birthday and christmass presents being the only excepetion. You always felt tainted, like you didn't deserve such concern. And you did want to know how Kid had fared. Though you didn't actually know the boy you couldn't help but feel concerned. ... especially after all that had happened. You more than anyone would understand what he was going through. After a moment to consider your best action you finally sighed in defeat. 

“Next time you’d better bring your meal too or else I’ll refuse to eat. And I’m not a charity case. I do have money, you know? Just not enough for a house. Just open a tab for me or something at least. Anyway… Hop in.” Despite your words, you pushed the garbage container enough so that Grillby could come through without having to jump over it.

The elemental seemed pleased with himself as well as relieved by your compliance. You took the bag and set it down on top of the tall crate you used as a table. You only had a broken chair you had fixed for a seat so you asked Grillby to sit on the mattress. Your pack watched him wearily just like that first time. He was made of fire, after all. Slowly the animals neared him and sniffed at him. Eventually Nix and Dusk nudged Grillby’s arm asking him to pet them. Artemis, who had the longest fur, decided to sit next to you instead and the dogs decided to surround you in hopes of getting a bite to eat too.

“So… how’s the kid.” You asked, still uneasy as to why the elemental had decided to come all the way there, as you took the hamburger out of the bag.

Grillby was very quiet, as you had come to realize, so his speech was short and concise. He told you how Undyne had come to his bar after picking the youth from the station. She had heard from Monster Kid that Grillby had been there upon the arrest and so she wanted to personally thank him. He also says that he thinks it’s highly probable that the queen will be adopting Monster Kid.

You ask if that is a common occurrence to which he replies that usually when a child is orphaned in the monster community they either go to a relative or the whole town pitches in to help raise them. Such a thing wouldn’t be possible in Auburn considering that the monster community was far too dispersed so the only option would be acting the same way they had when the first human had fallen to the underground.

“The first human to fall down was a child. Because they didn’t have a community or extended family in the underground and because they were found by Prince Asriel it was concluded that they would be raised by the Royal family.” Grillby said. It seemed that, as they talked, he became less and less quiet. Perhaps he was just shy.

“That’s interesting… such a tight knit community you monsters have. If only us humans could have the same care…”

“… From what young Frisk has said, humans have a very flawed system regarding orphaned younglings.”

“Young Frisk? You mean the Ambassador? I always wondered about that. How did they end up falling underground?”

“… From what I heard… they jumped.”

“Oh…” You decided not to pry any further. After a moment of silence you finally decide to voice your concerns. “Grillby… why are you really here?”

Grillby stays silent for some time as if considering the best words to say. Eventually he just says: “…You are a good person…”

“Uuuuhhh… not really? Thanks, though. But for real, now. Why?”

“… Why do you think you aren’t a good person?...” He asks ignoring your question.

“… There are several reasons why. That’s not to say that I think I’m a bad person. I’m just… a person. With all my flaws and mistakes as well as good points and deeds.”

“…hmm…” He ponders.

“So…?”

“…hmm?...”

“Why are you here?” You ask for the third time feeling severely frustrated. 

“… You did a good thing today. I believe you will oppose to me offering you a place to live after our short conversation so I offer you friendship…”

_**…Is this guy for real? As if I believe that is all he wants!** _

_Two months back I’d have agreed all too easily with you. Today I’ll do just as Papyrus did and have a little bit of faith._

_**Really!? And what if he is using that faith to hurt us?** _

_I’m not trusting blindly. Just giving the benefit of the doubt .I… I used to be able to do that before…_

_**… FINE! No more mental puppy eyes! …I’ll try to have faith this time for once…**_ Rajani muttered resigned.

“I… I would like to believe that what you say is the pure truth… I have many reasons why I can’t but… Just this once I’ll… I’ll try!” And then Rajani forcefully took over. “So don’t break my trust. You won’t like what happens then!” She said with a creepy smile though the flame man seemed unfazed by it. You mentally eye rolled at her antics.

The following week Grillby showed up every night after closing the bar, and always bringing food. You would always talk with him for about an hour before he left for home. In those moments you learned several things about the man. 

You learned he was alive for centuries and had actually fought in the war between humans and monsters that culminated with them being sealed inside Mount Ebbot by seven human mages. To that Rajani only commented _**“Damn, he old!”**_ though instead of feeling overwhelmed by the knowledge you both felt amazed. 

You also learned he was father to a teenage girl. His bonded mate had apparently ‘fallen down’, which was the monster term for dying, and that so many years after the fact he still felt grief stricken whenever he thought about her.

He talked about his time underground and how he had settled down in a place called Snowdin after he left the royal guard and how he had seen so many monsters grow up from kids to adults and in turn having children of their own throughout the centuries. He even told you he knew a monster like you, once, which was why he decided to help you. You wondered what he meant by that. He didn't go into details about it so that would remain a mystery.

In turn you talked about times long gone. How you used to write stories intending to turn them into books, how you liked to draw images for those stories. You told him about your family and Portugal, your country. You told him that you now worked on a company that created animated movies and that because you had learned so many different aspects of the animation process you where never in charge of the same position for two different movies but you still preferred working on the story board or character design. You also said you hadn’t given up on your stories and considered animating them into series or movies but were too busy currently with your job to dedicate any time to that personal project.

You never told him about why you were living on the streets or where your family was now and how they were doing and never let him have the chance to ask about them, changing the subject quickly.

You never thought you’d grow even so much as slightly attached to the monster in such a short time but a week later you felt you could consider him a friend. Not a close one, and especially not a best friend yet, but a friend none the less.

Not just that but your pack became quite attached to the elemental too. Even the jumpy and untrusting Artemis felt now comfortable enough to let him pet her, though not for long due to her long fur.

You started to cherish the brief moments you spent with him and even Rajani couldn’t complain any longer about his possible shady intentions. Sure she still didn’t trust him but he was definitely growing on her. Then again, so long as you liked him and he continued to prove trustworthy she would like him by default at some point, considering your emotions and mental state affected her too.

Little did you know that soon enough your little niche of somewhat happiness would be in danger once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter shit goes down and we get a Undyne POV too on the first half of the chapter.


	9. Chapter 8: Not This Place, Not Today

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *you are Undyne now
> 
> also MiRaj (Mir & Raj) get nerdy while fighting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... usually I would wait for sunday at least to post a new chapter but thing is... I'll be spending the next 10 days in algarve with my extended family from there for the holiday and there's no internet there so I'm posting this early (I leave in a couple of hours). I really hate spending christmass with my aunt Mila and family. Something always, ALWAYS, goes wrong causing a big family fight -_- so yeah... not looking forward to this year's shithive... wish me luck guys.

\--Undyne’s POV--

As far as Undyne was concerned there was nothing more annoying than having to do the humans’ job for them. When the lawyer representing Monster Kid on trial noted that the police were being awfully slow at handing him reports of the evidences and copies of the witnesses’ testimonies, Undyne knew right away it would be up to her to help the man with his job if they wanted to be ready to take their case to court. 

Dan Farkas, the lawyer representing Kid, was one of the few lawyers that felt no trouble representing monsters. In fact, he actually went out of his way to represent monsters. Undyne wasn’t paying much attention when he had explained to Asgore why he was so hell bent on helping monsters. Something about a war and a genocide? Apparently, his grandfather was the only one who somehow survived it out of his family. He talked about a lot of political stuff regarding that war and she had lost her interest quite fast.

Perhaps she could ask Alphys about it later. Alphys could always make anything sound much more interesting.

The thing was, Dan had been contacted with the trial date but had yet to receive the files he would need and there was only so much he could do with just Kid’s testimony. He was currently trying to get the report on the physical evidence from the crime scene and to help him she would go talk to the witnesses. Unfortunately, she only knew Grillby was one of them. According to Kid the other was a human woman he didn’t recognize. And what was worse was the fact that the human was actually the one witnessing the beating Kid undertook from one of those assholes. Without the files, Dan had no way to contact the woman.

Perhaps Grillby knew something about the woman. Undyne thought about asking Sans to talk to him but she knew he hadn’t been going to Grillby’s much lately. He tried to keep face for Papyrus’ sake but he had been working several jobs for a while trying to save money for buying a house. With how high most rents were, especially when it came to monsters, it was more affordable to actually buy a house outright. The guy was overworking himself so Undyne figured she could take care of talking to Grillby herself.

…

Man she was going to need a lot of bottled water!

Kid insisted on going with her to thank the flame monster himself. Considering how much trouble the kid got himself into in the underground, it was clear that leaving him behind would end up with him following her around anyway and that could get him into serious trouble.

But Undyne guessed taking care of the kid wasn’t that annoying. She could… consider it practice…? Undyne couldn’t wait for finally settling down with Alphys on a home of their own. She wanted so much to make a family with her girlfriend. Undyne would beat up anyone who accused her of such but secretly she was quite the romantic. The prospect of one day finally being able to feel secure enough on the surface to even consider having a child with Alphys… 

So no, Undyne didn’t mind taking care of Kid. The other addition to her entourage as she walked to Grillby’s, however… NGAAH!!!

“Come on, my darling. You shouldn’t frown too much. Try smiling more. It’ll be better for your skin.” Mettaton said.

Kid, fortunately, was rather oblivious to the robot. Undyne was his idol, after all. That didn’t seem to faze the egocentric machine. Honestly, if it were for either of their choices, neither of them would be hanging out together. Mettaton would much rather be at his work being famous. Or, according to Alphys,… Undyne thought with a private smirk on her lips. …with a certain skeleton…

As for Undyne, she hadn’t forgotten how Mettaton had ditched Alphys as soon as he became famous. Sure, he had a change of heart after facing Frisk. But he still seemed way too egocentric for Undyne’s taste. Hopefully he wouldn’t cast Alphys off again. Thank to the stars the guy didn’t want to admit his feeling for Papyrus either. Undyne would pummel him if he ever hurt her pupil.

At least he did have a good fashion sense.

Still, official business didn’t sound like a good thing to take Mettaton with her to. He had a way to make everything about him and that wasn’t something she needed.

Unfortunately, Alphys had done some adjustments to Mettaton’s body. She was trying to make the MettatonEX version of his body last longer without recharging and needing less energy for it. This was for the purpose of letting him work on his gigs for longer amounts of time. Sure, if he wasn’t performing his MettatonEX body would last for a whole week. However, he still needed ridiculously high amounts of energy and his body only lasted three hours when he performed because he spent a lot of energy for it too. And all this was regardless of him eating food. Food would only feed his ghost soul. The body, however, needed something more.

Because of all those changes to his body he now needed supervising. However, no one else was available. Not even Papyrus who was working hard at his cooking school hoping to become a great chef someday. Besides, not many people could lift that chunk of metal like she could. That thought made her even more proud of her strength.

She found the bar and grill easily. As expected Mettaton decided to make a grand entrance luring all attention to himself. Thankfully, aside from on initial look of curiosity, Grillby proceeded to ignore the robot. Undyne took the chance while Mettaton was busy with adoring fans around him to approach the fire elemental with Monster Kid following her every step.

“Hey punk. The kid wants to say something to you… again.” She said as Monster Kid struggled to climb up one of the stools.

“Yeah dude! Thanks a lot for healing me. That was awesome!” He said after slipping off the stool again.

“…………No need for ‘thank you’s. I just did what was right………” Grillby said reassuringly.

“With that out of the way.” Undyne started, grabbing Kid by his shirt and plopping him in the stool causing immediately a loud ‘ffffffffffffffrrrrrrrrrrrrrtttttttttt’ sound to escape it, silencing the bar. “SERIOUSLLY!? Does Sans ALWAYS leave his whoopee cushions here!?” She said aggravated. Grillby made no comment but Monster Kid giggled a bit. Mettaton simply ignored the rude interruption and proceeded with his autograph signing.

“Anyway…” Undyne started again, eyeing the stool she had been about to sit in warily. “The police officers are being complete…” She glanced at the kid remembering Toriel’s distaste for swear words. Her very big and stern distaste… brr! “… uh… in Papyrus-kind of vocabulary… rear orifices. Basically, they are trying to give us the least time possible to prepare for the trial by delaying the files delivery to our lawyer. That means your testimony is among them too so if possible could you tell us in detail your version of what happened?

“…………… Certainly…………”

Just as Undyne was about the ask for what happened Mettaton appeared between her and Kid.

“That’s why I’m here, darlings! I’m recording your testimony for Dan’s sake. Surely the fact that this testimony will be recorded and directed by me will automatically make it a work of art but I’m sure I can give it up for the sake of one of my fans!” He said indicating Kid who looked at him confused.

Getting the testimony from Grillby was anything but serene. However, and that Undyne had to admit, Mettaton forced Grillby to talk more than what was usual for him, even encouraged him to provide details. Still Undyne could have done without the many breaks Metteton took to check himself in a mirror with his camera eye to provide the video with ‘celebrity cameos’.

“Thanks for the help, punk! By the way, do you know where I can find the woman? I need her testimony too.”

“………… Today’s her day off. She’s at her sleeping spot…………” Grillby took a page from a note pad his daughter used to write the orders on and wrote the address and directions. “……… She’s very private………”

“Huh? You seem to know her pretty well.”

“…………She’s a friend………..”

That was odd. Grillby didn’t really form friendships easily, at least according to Sans. That punk must be something special.

She decided not to question him further. Considering how reserved Grillby was she doubted he would elaborate on his friendship with a human woman. Undyne would ask the mysterious woman instead. Kid seemed pretty hyped about meeting his savior, especially after Grillby described her fighting techniques and how she had used psychological intimidation together with physical attacks. Mettaton seemed very interested too, but most likely on the unusual friendship aspect rather that her fighting style, hopeful for some juicy story.

As they were approaching the alley Undyne hadn’t initially realized something was amiss, too distracted by Mettaton’s bantering as Kid rushed ahead of them. Then she heard the sounds of a struggle but it was too late to pull Kid out of sight from within the alley.

She advanced as fast as she could when she saw the fear in his eyes as a bulky man stepped out of the alley with malice in his eyes. She didn’t get to act. Before she could even finish summoning a spear a smaller shape ran out of the alley and blocked the guy’s knife from hitting Kid.

The woman wasn’t exactly short but the man towered over her making her look frail comparing to him. Still she held her ground, even having used her own left hand as shield. She barely flinched at the large blade impaled right through her hand. Instead she was seething in anger. She looked rather familiar…

“you… COWARD!!! Bringing 13 people to attack one single woman. Sure, I’m no weakling but you didn’t know that! And then when the lil poor girl is too much for you to handle you go after a fuckin’ CHILD!?” After panting in anger for a bit she started chuckling somewhat madly, sending shivers down Undyne’s spine, though she’d never admit it out loud. “ _Expelli_ fuckin’ _armus_ , mothahfuckah!”

As she said that she jumped and curled her right leg around the arm holding the knife, her thigh going over his forearm, the back of her knee resting on his elbow, her calf snaking under his arm and her foot anchoring on his shoulder. By the time she said ‘armus’ she snapped her leg straight forcing his arm to bend awkwardly and making him let go of the knife that was still impaled on her left hand. She landed on her left leg and kicked the guy’s chest sending him back into the alleyway.

Undyne was flabbergasted to say the least. She hadn’t understood jackshit of what the woman had said but that was pretty badass. To her left Mettaton was gushing at the golden opportunity for the movie he was producing/directing/recording with all that drama and action.

\-- Your POV´--

Can’t you have a quiet day off anymore!? Last week you saved a monster child and now you were being attacked by a group of thirteen guys because you had gotten their law breaking, murdering friends into jail.

A week ago you wouldn’t have cared. Your will was written and you had everything straightened in case of a sudden death, even your pack. Your sis would have another extra year and that was the best you could hope for anyway. But now…

Now you had a friend. It was slightly irritating that you couldn’t die without affecting him too in some way. You didn’t want anyone depending on you again! 

…

But you didn’t want him to come visit you only to find your dead body instead… You hated hurting others this way. So you fought for your life. Not for you, but for someone else.

Rajani had wanted you to fight the guys yourself. She wanted you to stop relying on her. So you had. The only help you had was team working with your pack. You had downed four guys but you knew you probably wouldn’t be able to get out unscathed. Dodging could only get you so far, after all. And there was only so much your pack could help you with, without any of them getting hurt.

You were definitely in a pickle. Rajani was starting to second guess her decision too.

And then the kid you had protected a week back appeared in the alleyway entrance. It didn’t take long for the group leader to take notice of him and moving to attack. You rushed ahead. Your pack instinctively protected you without the need for any commands. You and Rajani fused in your need to protect the child, acting as one.

You stepped in front of the gorilla of a man. Your instinct was to lift your right hand. Your dominant one. But Rajani forced you to lift the left one, leaving your stronger side unscathed. The tip of the blade blossomed in the back of your hand after cutting through muscle and tendons. 

You didn’t feel pain. Either that was the effect of the adrenaline kicking into gear or Rajani was absorbing the pain into herself. She always did _handle_ pain better… wait… did you just… Why? Just why? … Nevermind!!!

“you… COWARD!!! Bringing 13 people to attack one single woman. Sure, I’m no weakling but you didn’t know that! And then when the lil poor girl is too much for you to handle you go after a fuckin’ CHILD!?” You panted in anger and exertion and then you started chuckling menacingly. You pondered adding something else but that was a waste of time. Oooooh, you were going to have fun with these assholes! You were going to bathe on their entrails and drink their blood for lunch. Hehehehehehehe… “ _Expelli_ fuckin’ _armus_ , mothahfuckah!”

You used your right leg to twist the guy’s arm into letting go of the knife and proceeded to kick him away from you and the child. You weren’t sure why your potterhead side decided to come up right then and there but it didn’t really matter.

Grinning menacingly, you stared down the nine guys left. You whistled your pack to you to guard the kid. You turned towards him, winked and said in your best impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger. “I’ll be back!”  
Then you pulled the knife out of your hand slowly so as not to cause any more damage and proceeded to lick it clean of blood as you peered into their eyes. They shivered. In fear? In disgust? Or perhaps sexual arousal for some of the sicker fucks out there? Who cares! You didn’t even know for sure who was who inside your head. You and Rajani were so fused it was hard way to tell your thoughts apart. And you didn’t really care about whose thoughts were controlling your body. There were more important things standing right behind you.

“Man, talk about all the irons in the fire, huh?” You said scanning the crowd. You didn’t bother checking on Kid. You knew your pack would protect him and you were pretty sure the whole gang was inside the alleyway.

Gripping the blade in the right hand tightly you bolted forwards. The alley was rather narrow. You knew that if you kept them from surrounding you at the very worst you would have to deal with two of them at the same time.

They had their height and weight as an advantage over you but you were more agile and flexible. You stayed low to attack their lower body. You focused on tendons. You didn’t want to hit veins or arteries. But then again, would that be so bad?

“ _Sectumsempra_!” You managed to cut the leg of one guy pretty deep making him whimper pathetically. Talk about macho ninnies! All for show and no actual substance. HehehehehehaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Another bloke kicked you sending you crashing to the wall. Your shoulder took the brunt of the impact and you took no time to stand up again, savage smile painted on your lips as your chuckles crescendoed into a full blown wicked laugh again.

“This monster fucking bitch is crazy!” One of the dickheads commented. The others glanced between each other feeling creeped out and pleasing you to no end. That was exactly what you wanted them to feel.

“You are true indeed. I AM a crazy bitch. But you got one thing wrong, pall! I can’t be a monster fucker without actually fucking a monster, dumbass!” Before they could react to your comment you rushed forward screaming ‘PCHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!’.

You slashed wildly as a way to distract them from what you really wanted to do. They made way for you to run through them and you quickly grabbed a discarded metal rod that they had previously tried to use on you. You didn’t discard the knife just in case you lost the pipe, but you’d rather use a blunt object to fight.

Before they could turn around to look at you, you wacked two with two strong swings knocking them out. The third swing you threw, however, had no effect because the man caught the pipe with his hand. You kicked at his shin with all your might but couldn’t get the man to release the pipe so instead you sidestepped behind him and tried to choke him with it. Kicking at the others with your legs. One grabbed your leg and tried to pull you off his pall by it so you latched on to the man more fiercely using the momentum to choke him harder. You felt some sort of pressure on your leg but ignored it.

Suddenly you were free again. The guy you were choking grew weak and let go of the pipe so you released him and kicked his legs from under him and smashed the pipe against his crotch. “CRUCIO!!!” You shouted at the whimpering man below you and then twirled the iron pipe in your hands aloofly like a cheerleader baton.

You felt a tongue lick your wounded hand and noticed Hades was standing beside you. Then you realized all the other guys were down for the count or held at spear point by… Undyne!? What is she doing there? And… Mettaton too? With… a disco ball shooting blue lasers around the cowering men like some sort of laser cage? Huh… Ok!

You slump to the ground, too tired to question anything anymore. You now notice that the pressure you felt on your leg had actually been a knife someone had stabbed at you. Oh well, _**shit! Go to sleep!**_ Oh! _I guess the fusion is_ over? Yes, _**yeah it**_ is! Well, let’s _both go to sl_ eep. _ **O**_ k…

\--Undyne’s POV--

Undyne sensed when Miranda fainted and heard the pipe hitting the floor now that it wasn’t being held any longer. She knew her HP was rather high but still she was concerned the girl had more damage dealt to her than what she had seen. It did seem she had been fighting the men before they had arrived. 

“Hey, Mettaton. Summon another of those mirror globe thingies to trap these losers. I need to check on that punk.”

Mettaton quickly called upon another disco ball and Undyne dissolved her spears. Miranda was now surrounded by all her pets. At first Undyne hadn’t recognized the demure woman she had talked to several weeks before at breakfast. The enraged fighter she had seen seemed at odds with the person she had talked to and so very different from the organized and cool tempered woman who had saved them at the conference. She had somehow recognized her looks but it was only when she called on her pets that she had linked the two sides of her together. Man she was a fierce fighter! She looked at Monster Kid who was looking at the young woman with a haunted expression on his face.

“D-dude. Is… Is she… falling down…?” He finished with a whisper.

Undyne pulled enough on her soul to see her stats but not enough to see her actual soul. Aside from fights, pulling another person’s soul out was rather intimate and the only other circumstance in which it was acceptable was by a doctor specialized in souls or in a fight. Neither circumstance applied so Undyne only pulled on her stats.  
.  
.

> **“Miranda”**
> 
> **LV 1**
> 
> **HP 1673/2058**
> 
> **AT 27 (0) EXP: 1**
> 
> **DF 24 (0)**
> 
> ***Selflessness and Integrity slumber away together**

.  
.  
.

“Nah, she’s fine. See? 385 hit points out of 2058 is not bad at all.” She commented with a poker face.

Sure, had it been a regular adult human with the normal amount of HP they’d either be dead or close to it but Kid didn’t need to know that. Undyne wondered how Miranda had gotten such a high amount of HP. She noted that her LV was 1, which was good, but frowned at her EXP. Ideally it should be at 0 but it was at 1. Sans hadn’t mentioned that. And that sentence at the end… It was odd to say the least.

“Undyne, darling! The police just arrived.” Mettaton informed her. He had used his ingrained cell phone to call 911 as soon as they had seen what was about to go down.

“Hey. Do you think she was attacked because of…” She trailed off glancing at the child. Mettaton understood it immediately.

“I wouldn’t know for sure but they did spout a lot of racist remarks. Yes, it is possible it could be related to her friendship with Grillby.” For once Mettaton was sensible enough not to point out the Kid might have been the cause. The boy was already distraught enough as it was. Last thing he needed was to feel guilty about the woman who had saved him.

“Ok, call Danny boy over about this just in case. I’m going to fill the cops in on what happened. Did you record everything with that eye of yours?”

“Of course I did! How could I pass up the opportunity! The first action flick produced by MTT brand’s main star, Mettaton!” He said making Undyne groan in annoyance, couldn’t that guy take anything seriously? “And sure thing, darling. I’ll call Dan.”

She turned towards the police officers to debrief them. Man this was going to be a long day…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Miranda and Rajani can sometimes fuse their thoughts, they were one in the begining after all, but they mostly choose not to fearing that the other might disapear. they really do like to speak to each other a and as they were until Grillbs befriended them, all they had was each other and their pack.
> 
> next chapter... Auburn PD done fucked up!


	10. Chapter 9: The Auburn PD Needs a Boot to the Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Auburn PD done fucked up, you get into witness protection (sort of) and have to change places.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title brought to you by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFldBVWFgWo
> 
> welp finally back from my vacay. This time it weren't the cousin and aunt making our life hell, it was my gramps but hey, he's 88 going on 89, at least it couldn't make it as bad as the others could (it's still enough to give us migraines but still).

When you woke up you were still in the alley. It seemed an ambulance had just arrived and you could see several police cars around trying to accommodate the big amount of her attackers into their cars. Undyne was talking to some officers and Mettaton now had two disco balls floating in the air, guarding the men that had yet to be taken into the cars. Your pack was still surrounding you, together with Monster Kid who was leaning against Hades. He immediately noticed she was awake.

“Oh! Hey, dude! You ok?” He asked.

“Uh, yes I think so.” You said flinching as you began noticing the pain in your body. You immediately noticed that Rajani had fainted so she must have been the one absorbing the pain until now after all.

“Thanks the stars! Dude, you got me worried there.” He sighed then he looked at you looking very much exited. “Hey, those where some sick moves you did there! You’re almost as cool as Undyne!”

“Thank you…” You said embarrassed.

“Nah, dude. Thank _you_. You saved me twice now.”

“I only did what was right.”

“Still, thank you.”

“Well… If you really want to thank me could you go behind the dumpster and get me the white tool box I have next to the mattress?”

He didn’t hesitate. Hades followed him protectively. You turn to look at Dusk. She was sitting right next to you, her gaze fixed on your face. As soon as you looked in her direction she quickly slumped to the ground sideways, stretching her lean body, a clear request for some TLC. You petted her in the belly. You were one of the few people your cats trusted enough to let you pet their belly.

“I see you’re awake, punk. Hey… Where’s the kid?” Undyne had finished talking to the police officers and had joined you.

“He’s there getting my first aid kit.” You said pointing at the dumpster.

“Pfft. That won’t be necessary. After the police documents your wounds we’ll heal ya up. It’s faster this way anyway.”

“Oh.”

“So… You are the punk that saved Kid, huh?”

“Uh, yes.”

“I never expected for it to be you, but I’m not surprised. I need to talk to you about what happened with the kid.”

You looked as her with your head tilted in confusion.

“Why?”

“The cops are taking too long to send the kid’s lawyer our copy of the evidence and testimony so to help him out I came to talk to Grillby and now you. I didn’t expect to find you under attack, that’s for sure.”

“Oh! Yeah makes sense. They did say something about me testifying. I didn’t even know I was going to be called to the stand. Now I understand why.”

“So it was because of the trial then.” You looked up surprised at the new presence next to the two of you. 

The one talking had been a man dressed in a full suit carrying a black briefcase. He noticed your confused stare and extended you a hand for a hand shake.

“Good afternoon. My name is Dan Farkas and I’m representing Monster Kid in court. It’s a pleasure to meet you, though the circumstances are not the best.”

“Uh, Hi. The name’s Miranda Castro. Likewise.” You said shaking his hand.

“I would like to count on your testimony on trial. I would also like to request for you to be put under protective custody until then given the recent events.” He said while gesturing towards the last men that were about to be put into the last police car.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure that’s all of them over there. Is it really necessary for me to be… protected?”

“You can’t be sure those are all of them. At least until both trials are over I want you to stay safe.”

“Both trials?”

“Well we can’t put those men on the same trial as the ones that attacked young Kid. Its two different attacks on two different people by different people hence why two different trials.

“Oh, ok.”

“So, where have you been staying so far? We need to gather your belongings.”

“Huuummm… There.” You blushed in shame as you admitted to living in the alley.

To his credit, Dan didn’t comment or falter, though Undyne frowned deeply.

“Perfect, I’ll talk to the officers about your circumstances. Undyne, document her injuries with this camera so we can have our own evidence this time around.” He handed Undyne a camera and then went to talk to the police officers still on scene.

“Uh… Say cheese?” Undyne said lifting the camera.

You allowed her to photograph your wounds. Not long after another police officer came with a camera of his own. As soon as he finished his photographs Undyne handed you a bag of candy for you to eat. With each piece you ate the wounds seemed to heal a bit more. You told the officer your side of the story but he seemed more interested in the recordings Undyne claimed Mettaton had done.

You wondered where Monster Kid was. He was gone for quite some time now. When the police officer was done with you, you quickly dodged behind the dumpster. You spared a moment to see the poor young kid trying to pick the first aid kit with his mouth. Poor guy was trying so hard. Now you felt guilty for asking him to bring you a box without having any arms. How stupid could you be!?

“H-hey. Thanks for your hard work but Undyne already gave me something for my wounds.” You tell him and he stops trying to pick the box, gushing on how cool Undyne was instead.

You look around as the kid babbles on. You didn’t feel comfortable going to some safe house but even you weren’t dumb enough to ignore the lawyer’s wishes. You quickly pick your personal items as Kid tells you about how he wished Undyne visited his school in the underground. You push all the crates against the wall and set the mattress over them on its side. Kid insists on helping you with the tarp so you hold him up as he unties the tarp from its peg with his mouth. He then helps you cover the mattress with it to keep it from getting wet. This way next time you came here you could still use it. You lean your chair against the crates. By then Kid was asking you about your life on the streets to which you hesitantly answered, not wanting the youth to develop some sort of romanticized idea of what it truly means.

Just as you were picking up your things to exit the alley you see Mettaton , Dan and Undyne squeezing past the dumpster. You are rather surprised Mettaton doesn’t seem squeamish about the place. Shouldn’t celebrities abhor gross places with garbage in them?

“The police agreed that it would be on your best interest that you be placed somewhere else until the trials are over. However, considering that they have failed to keep to themselves that the place you were attacked in was indeed where you were staying, Undyne has been authorized to find a place for you to stay on behalf of the Monster Ambassador and the Monster King.” Dan said.

“Mister Farkas… I’m afraid I don’t understand. Kid’s attackers were arrested here. They would know, right?”

“Call me Dan, please. That’s would have been a logical conclusion to reach. However, I have talked to one of the officers present that day, who was also here today. They were taken out of the alley before you had gone to take Monster Kid out from behind the dumpster and it wasn’t mentioned that that’s where you slept so all they could be sure of by then was that that was where you hid him. Never was it mentioned in front of them, since they were already being taken away on a patrol car when the subject was approached, that you actually slept here. Not even in the questioning was that fact mentioned. They had no way to know you lived here, thus they wouldn’t have the information to pass on to their ‘friends’ that you do. See what I’m getting at here?”

“Yeah. Someone ratted to the merry bunch of ignorants, putting me in danger.”

“Exactly. Thus, since our human police force can’t keep one of its citizens safe, and considering the interest the monster community and its leaders hold on the matter of the trial, especially after the attack on the conference weeks back, I requested that you be put under the protective custody of the Monster community where you not only could be out of their reach, but also would have strong monsters nearby to protect you.”

“I see… I don’t really feel comfortable with these changes…”

“I understand, but we need to think of your safety first.”

“We?”

“Yes, you and me.”

“… fine.”

“Good thing we agree. Undyne shall take you to the Temporary Monster Compound.”

“ Temporary… what? What is that?”

“You’ve been there before, you nerd.”

“I have? And… nerd? What happened to punk?” You asked surprised at the nick name she had called you. The first time she’d called you that it had been understandable but right now you weren’t doing anything remotely nerdy.

“Fuhuhuhuhu. You thought I wouldn’t find out about all those nerdy stuff you spouted during your fight, you nerd? Don’t worry, you still have your punk status, nerd is just an extension to it.” She said.

“She only knows them because I saw Mettaton’s recording and recognized your Harry Potter and Terminator references. I still don’t understand the ‘irons in the fire’ one, though. The way you said it meant it was a reference but I can’t quite place it.”

“Oh, right. It’s Homestuck, the internet’s epic webcomic, if you really want to know.”

“Nice use of the expelliarmus spell, by the way.”

“I really don’t know why I started spouting fandom references stuff mid fight. I guess I just wanted to confuse them further… or maybe have one of them shout out ‘hey I know that reference!’.” You half joked.

“According to Grillby’s testimony you try to use psychological tactics against your opponents too, isn’t it? Is that why you were laughing like a maniac?” Dan asked.

“Well, how did seeing that make you feel about me?” You ask nervously. One thing was looking crazy to scare off opponents trying to kill you. Another was having regular people thinking you were crazy and trying to put you in an asylum or something.

“Severely creeped out, honestly.”

“Then it did its job. Most people expect the person they are beating up to cry, whimper or look angry. Looking like pain doesn’t bother you is already creepy enough as it is. No one expects someone to laugh on top of it all. The purpose was indeed to make me look insane. Normal people are predictable in a fight. Insane ones aren’t. It gave them pause and I used that to my advantage.” You explained nervously.

“You are very smart, young lady!” Dan commented.

“That is AWSOME STRATEGY! We should fight someday, punk!” Undyne said.

“O-oh! Well I’m not really that smart…” You said, blushing from the compliment.

“Don’t sell yourself short, darling. We wouldn’t tell you something we don’t mean.” Mettaton said.

“And you looked so cool while fighting!” Kid added.

“W-well. Anyway… What were you saying about the compound?” You said trying to change the subject.

“Oh, yeah. You’ve been there already, punk. We ate breakfast together and all.” Undyne said.

“Oh! But… wasn’t that your home?”

“Pff! NAH! It’s just a place where the monsters coming out of the underground stay until they adjust to the human way of living and buy their own home or rent a place to live. The people you saw there were the only ones who still haven’t found a home yet. Me and Alph are already checking out places to live. She has a job secured already and when I find one myself we will move out.” Undyne explained. “When everyone is out of that place Toriel plans on transforming it into a school for both humans and monsters.”

“I was one of the first to leave. But then again it was only expected of me to do so. I was born to be a star after all.” Mettaton added.

“Ok… But are you sure it’s a good idea for me to live there until the trials are over?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t you be?”

“ I’m afraid I’ll be linked to… humm... the attempt on the king and ambassador…”

“Wait, you were the one who jumped in front of Frisk!? Dude, that was so cool!” Monster Kid said.

“Please speak quieter.”

The others seemed to understand your reason for not wanting to be in the spotlight for saving them and asked no further. Mettaton seemed to disagree with it but made no comment about it.

“Are… are the others ok with my presence there?” You ask Undyne.

“YOU BET!!! I just talked to king Fluffybuns and queen Toriel and they are totally fine with it. Frisk’s at school so I couldn’t talk to them but I’m sure they’ll be happy with it. Papyrus has talked about you nonstop, trying to dial all the numbers possible in search for your phone number and Sans is too lazy to care anyway.” She assured you, grabbing most of your packed possessions. “Now come on! No time to lose!”

Next thing you knew you were being shoved inside the lawyer’s car together with your pack and packages. Dan would be driving you there. The car was far too full for the others to join you and Undyne had parked her car near Grillby’s so they walked there.

When you arrived you weren’t surprised to see Toriel there. Though she had been busy trying to find ways to fund her future school, she had decided that welcoming the new guest was more important. The first thing she did was check on your prior injuries. They were completely gone, not even signs of scarring tissue. Instead the only way to know they had been there was a slight discoloring where the wound used to be. 

She informed you that Asgore was still dealing with a meeting with several senators and the city mayor regarding legislation to be applied to monsters and would come home late. Alphys was at her new job in a lab trying to find ways to use magic to improve already existing human technologies and would be working extra hours. Papyrus and Frisk would be arriving soon from their respective schools and Sans would only be joining them for dinner.

Leaving Dan in the entrance hall, Toriel took you to the same room you had slept in the last time you had been here and then excused herself but not before asking you how you felt about butterscotch or cinnamon. You informed her you didn’t quite know what butterscotch was, at least not by name because you weren’t a native English speaker, but were willing to try it and that cinnamon was certainly one of your least liked spices but so long there wasn’t a lot of it you didn’t mind. Whatever kind of sweet she was planning on baking, she had the worst poker face in the history of poker facing.

You set your stuff on the floor and sat of the bed. Your pack decided to make themselves home and get reacquainted with the mansion so they left your room not long after entering. You felt dazed with how chaotic your life was turning once again. Now that you were once again alone you felt comfortable enough to talk to Rajani.

_Hey, you awake yet?_

_**Heck yeah. Have been for a while now. Those monster candy thingies helped a TON.** _

_I… I…_

_**Oh no…** _

_Idon’tknowwhattothink.WhatamIsupposedtodonow?Imean,itmakessenseformetobehere,right?ButIdon’tfeelokbeinghereandI’mpanickingandI’mtryingsohardnottoletitshowbutmythoughtsareamessand-_

_**Calm down. Calm down. I hear ya. Look, just chill. I know we never intended to share a place with anyone ever again. That was mainly my idea, remember?** _

_Y-yeah…_

_**And remember why we decided that?** _

_…because… that ‘_ man _’…he hurt Artemis._

_**That’s right. I doubt these guys will do that. If they do we’ll just hurt them back just as hard, ok?** _

_I… I don’t want what happened last time to happen again…_

_**I… I can’t promise that. No one hurts our family and gets away with it! But I’ll make sure to prevent it from happening.** _

_And… what about… not trusting others?_

Rajani heavily sighed.

_**You kind of broke that promise to me already by befriending that flame man.** _

_I’m sorry…  
**NO! NEVER BE SORRY FOR THAT! It’s not your fault that people decide to abuse your trust and friendship! You’re not the bad one! They are! They ALL are!**_

_Raj…_ You say sadly. She sighs, calming down from her outrage.

_**I know you want to be able to freely trust others. I know you feel so lonely. It’s my fault. I don’t want to see you almost… no! I don’t want to see that again! But…It was me. I failed you. I let you trust Sophie and Daniel. I could have prevented it. And I let you trust Josiah too.**_

_No it wasn’t. You told me Sophie wasn’t trustworthy. You knew it. Our mom knew it. Our sis knew it. I refused to believe you all because I… we honor our friendships. You were just smart enough to realize she was using us much sooner than me. As for Daniel, I blinded myself to his misgivings, highlighting only his qualities. I loved him. I loved him so much that I didn’t realize he didn’t love me. My fault, too. Everyone else, you included, knew he wasn’t good. I just didn’t listen. As for Josiah… it was an unnecessary choice, the one he made. I wouldn’t say I trusted him completely and I was lonely living on the streets with just our pack. I know it hurts you when I say this but… I needed someone to talk to. Someone that wasn’t living on my own head. Please stop blaming yourself._

_**But you do! Not for Josiah but for those two other assholes. If it’s not my fault then it’s not your fault either! Sophie chose to use you as she deemed fit and then use the knowledge she gained from your friendship to utterly destroy you using your weaknesses. Daniel held you to high standards, despite refusing to acknowledge that on himself, and when you failed to reach them he simply cast you aside. And worse, he cast you aside for Sophie, no less. After she had utterly ruined you! You didn’t ask for that. You deserved better from them both after all you did for them. They chose to be complete assholes.** _

_I dunno…_

_***sigh* Look. I know I told you not to let anyone get close but… maybe I was too harsh. You were already so insecure and afraid after all they did to you and I… I made it worse. I still don’t want you to let your guard down but… it’ll be impossible for you to live here and not befriending anyone. You know that and I know that. You hate being rude to people. You are too nice. You like people too easily and hate people seldomly. It’s just your nature, I guess. Just… don’t… crap!** _ Rajani flustered as she tried to find the words to translate her thoughts. Because you shared the same brain you understood what she meant. Still you decided to mess with her.

_Don’t crap? But Raj! It’s a bodily function. I can’t help it!_

_**GAAAAAH! THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT!** _

_I know. I’ll be more careful this time but still remain the same Miranda you know and love. You wouldn’t feel so protective over me if I wasn’t this way, after all._

_**You know me better than even I know myself. You appeared before me when I needed you most. I was so filled with hatred for the whole world. I just wanted to lash out. Why was I the only one the whole school seemed to pick on? Even people from other classes picked on me! But you were there... So nice and kind... And if there was someone like you around… then maybe there were more people too… That’s what I thought, anyway.** _

_I know. And if it weren’t for you I’d have fallen apart so many times because I just couldn’t easily hate those who hurt me but I had no other way to cope with the pain unless with your hatred. You took all the pain from me. You always have. Never change either._

_**Ok…** _

_And who’s to say that there aren’t any more kind people out there. Papyrus seems pretty nice, if a little over-energetic. And… there’s Fifas and Michiru too. I’ve been out of touch with them for a long time. But that’s my fault. I pushed everyone else away… I wonder if they still want to even talk to me…_

_**You can always try, right? And if they don’t we can take this chance to start anew, ok? Let’s try to be better. Deal?** _

_Deal._

_**You know… you kinda-** _

She was cut off and you pulled out of your inner mind when the door to your room burst open and a tall skeleton in a handmade costume armor and an eleven year old kid in a striped shirt and jeans pilled in, followed closely by Hades, Iris and Nucha. Behind them you could see Undyne and Mettaton peeking. Monster Kid was probably there too but you couldn’t see him with so many people in front of him.

“SKINNY HUMAN!”

“Oof!” Papyrus and Frisk tackled you as overly excited dogs surrounded you all begging the skeleton and the kid for attention.

“SKINNY HUMAN!” Papyrus suddenly said pushing you back to look at your face, seemingly disappointed in something. “AFTER YOU LEFT I REALIZED I HADN’T GOTTEN YOUR PHONE NUMBER AND TRIED DIALING ALL NUMBERS TO GET YOURS BUT ALLAS I HAVE FAILED. I ASSURE YOU IT WASN’T A LACK OF FRIENDSHIP POWER THAT CAUSED SUCH! WOULD YOU PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR PHONE NUMBER PLEASE?” Bellow you Frisk nodded vigorously in agreement.

“Wait… You really tried dialing every single phone number just to get my number?” You ask flabbergasted staring at him. Sure, Undyne had said it but you thought she was joking. 

“OF COURSE I DID! ALL THOSE BESTOWED WITH THE TITLE OF ‘MY FRIENDS’ DESERVE THE UPMOST FOCUS ON MY PART!” He said, letting you go to make a heroic pose that had his scarf flapping like there was a sudden breeze in the room, resembling a superhero cape. _**How does he do that? More importantly, can I do it too?**_

After a dazed silence at his very honest and very innocent tone and answer you burst laughing. 

_Oh Raj. How can anyone, you included, think this big boney ball of sweetness has malicious second intentions._

_**The dude pretty much phoned every single person looking for you! Stalker much?** _

_Fine, you grumpy cat wannabe! Be that way!_

You notice the skeleton is looking at you confused and everyone else knowingly. Well, almost everyone else. Mettaton had a massive poker face, probably so as not to start gushing at how sweet Papyrus was, and the dogs still only cared about getting petted by the new arrivals.

“Sorry. It’s just that it was so unexpected that you had actually dialed every single number looking for me and you sound so sincere about your friendship for me…”

“I’M GLAD THAT THE EARNESTNESS OF MY FRIENDSHIP HAS MADE YOU HAPPY! IT IS ONLY EXPECTED OF ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, TO MAKE ANYONE HAPPY JUST BY MY BEING FRIENDS WITH THEM!”

“I’m sorry that all your efforts to reach me were fruitless because of just one small fact about my phone number.”

“OH? WHAT IS IT?”

“Well… my phone number is still from my country. You see, because there are so many people in the world, phone numbers get recycled from country to country. If I had an American phone number, just dialing a regular kind of number like you did would have been fine. But because my number is still the one I had in my native country you would need to add a code in the beginning to make sure you get the version from my country and not from America. The codes vary from country to country. I’m from Portugal so mine would be +351.”

“OH, I SEE! THIS INDEED MAKES SEARCHING FOR YOUR NUMBER MORE DIFICULT. IT COULD EVEN ALMOST COUNT AS A KIND OF PUZZLE ON ITSELF! THAT’S REALLY INTERESTING, SKINNY HUMAN!”

“Oh, and here is my number!” You pull out your phone and display it. You always added your own number to your contacts because you had a hard time remembering numbers and needed a place readily available to check for it. “Just add +351 at the beginning.”

Before Papyrus could take your phone to read it, Frisk took a hold of it and dashed away with it blowing a raspberry at the tall skeleton. Papyrus immediately gave chase, followed closely by the dogs, as Undyne, Mettaton and Monster Kid burst laughing. You immediately joined them as well.

_**Ok, I have to admit… that was adorkable. But don’t let your guard down just yet.** _

_Warming up to him, are you?_

_**Shut it!** _

You put on your best poker face so that the monsters in front of you wouldn’t realize you were having a conversation with a voice in your head.

“Why don’t you go join Frisk, MK? Give Paps a workout.” Undyne said to Monster Kid. Was it just you or was there a certain tenderness in her eyes? Odd.

Kid, or MK as she had called him, dashed after the others, falling face first on the hallway, but getting up right after, chattering away on how he would make Undyne proud by following her orders better than anyone else.

“NGGGGGHHHH! I wish I could join them! But I still have official stuff to do!”

“What stuff?”

“Well we still haven’t asked about what happened the day your found MK. I need to go over what happened that day in detail. We never got to talk it over back at the alley.”

“Oh! That’s ok. You can start.”

And so the questions began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so we get a bit of insight into Mir's and Raj's past via their conversation. I'm making their past into a mix of my best friend's and my past (since Miranda IS a tribute to her and Rajani is pretty much a author insert. the story about 'sophie' and 'daniel' is real, you just add different names. i will eventually reveal it completely. they are the reason i needed to write this tribute in the first place...)
> 
> on to less depressing subjects!!!
> 
> next chapter: someone gets dunked on in a very unusual and creative way (and Metts helps XP)


	11. Chapter 10: Friends on the Other Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone gets told off in a creative way
> 
> chapter tittle brought to you by: https://youtu.be/yZAY-78zhmw

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I was drawing a comic to go along this chapter but i couldn't finish it due to various shenanigans (Illustrator going bonkers). I hope you don't mind that I post it here anyway (I'll try to post it in the end of this chapter at the end notes though I'm not quite sure how to do that. sorry if it's a bit short. Also... Sans POV just 'cause.

\--Sans POV--

Sans couldn’t believe it. Of all the people that could have saved Monster Kid, Miranda had to be the one. Just his luck that, of all the people he vouched for (Frisk non withstanding, thoug technically her didn't exactly vouch for Frisk completely), MK had to be saved by the only one he hoped wouldn’t cross paths with him again. He had received the text message while at work and only saw it after his shift was over.

Unlike his job at the hotdog stand he didn’t get much time to rest at McDonalds. Not to mention that all personal belongings were to stay stashed inside the locker while he worked. They were pretty strict when it came to hygiene. All personal belongings were to stay in the lockers for that reason. That meant earrings, piercings, necklaces, rings and so on were also off the menu, though Sans didn’t need to worry about those anyway. Or about wearing a net for his nonexistent hair.

That had been the reason why he hadn’t known the existence of the message until his shift was over. If he had known, he would have cut his shift short regardless of consequence. As it was he teleported back home, still in his McDonalds uniform though he was supposed to exchange it back before leaving so that they wouldn’t ‘be soiled with outside germs’, as he had been informed.

That comment could have been construed as ‘specieist’ if not for the fact that the little animation movie he had been shown not only starred cartoon humans, but was also old. And when he said old he meant it was almost a classical meaning it had been used many times before on humans.

He startled Toriel, Undyne and Mettaton by popping up out of nowhere in the kitchen. Dan… seemed pretty much unfazed. He always was which was unsettling to say the least. Did the man have nerves of steel?

“You’re home early, my friend.” Toriel said, being the first to calm down from the scare, while giggling at the others’ and her own reaction to his sudden appearance. 

Sans shrugged aloofly. It was true he usually stopped by grillby’s on his way home that day of the week, even if it was just for a quick chat with the flame man alone. He also reserved teleportation for special occasions.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to wear your uniform outside of work, punk.” Undyne commented raising a brow at his apparel.

“heard about miranda staying over and wanted to know what was _cooking_. ” He gestured the bubbling pot making Toriel giggle some more.

“I’m pretty pissed at you, you know?” She went on to say.

“wow you seem to take workplace hygiene pretty seriously. don’t worry, next time I’ll make sure to change before coming home.” he commented nonchalantly though inside he was confused at Undyne’s anger.

“NGGGGGGGHHH! NOT THAT! Why didn’t you tell us she had 1 EXP!? It would have been good to know beforehand!” It was clear Undyne was trying to hold back from jumping him because of the human guest, not that she could do anything with how good he was at dodging.

So, that was what she was angry about! Sincerely he himself was beginning to regret leaving that tidbit out by now. But how had she found out about Miranda’s EXP? He looked around paying attention to every single noise around.

“didn’t think that just 1 EXP was that much to worry about. could have been self-defense. besides, i wasn’t exactly expecting our temporary houseguest to be not so temporary. where’s paps, by the way?” He was acutely aware that, aside from the four of them in the kitchen, only light nimble paw steps could be heard, probably Miranda’s cats. Undyne nodded at his explanation and asked no further. If he hadn’t been so worried about his brother he would have found that odd.

“He went out with Miranda and the kids to walk her dogs. It’s a pity. I wanted to show him my prowess at directing, producing and filming an action movie.” Mettaton answered looking very much disappointed. Sans was the only person he didn’t dare to add the ‘darling’ or ‘beauty’ at the end of his sentences for. Sans liked it better that way. He would have liked even more if the pack of bolts would steer clear of his little brother but that was still a work in progress.

“what are you talking about?” He asked, intrigued at the so called ‘action movie’.

“He filmed the whole encounter of the guys that attacked Miss Castro. We took the chance of her taking the dogs for a walk to clear out any innocent viewers. Your brother offered to escort them just in case.” Dan explained and Sans was pretty sure they’d somehow manipulated Papyrus into offering to go. “We were just about to watch the recording ourselves.” He finished and pulled a chair at his side. In front of him was a laptop resting on the table. Only then did Sans notice the several cables connecting the laptop to Mettaton.

Before he could turn it into a pun Dan clicked in an icon and a video began playing. Dan immediately began taking notes on what was happening as Toriel wrung her hands nervously at the display.

Sans was horrified to say the least. The way Miranda went from the quiet and serious girl he had seen so far to the laughing sadistic lunatic send shivers down his spine as he remembered all those timelines Frisk had been possessed by an evil spirit and murdered every single person in the underground, laughing hysterically as they did it.

He was only able to keep a panic attack at bay because she wasn’t cruelly murdering anyone. In fact, all wounds and attacks seemed to be meant to disable and incapacitate, not to kill. She was a very good and terrifying fighter. If she ever turned on them… He couldn’t bear just thinking of it. Seeing the way she moved and acted he knew that if she ever had the compulsion to follow on the demon child’s path he knew the kills could potentially be far less ‘merciful’. Seeing the second video where Dan interviewed her on her tactics only filled him with even more dread and dragged forward the panic attack he was desperately trying to keep at bay by telling himself over and over that she wasn't the demon child. 

As for what was so dreadful about the interview, it showed him her methodical thinking. She was smart and that was dangerous. She was the type that could keep victims alive longer if she wanted to and torture them. She could be far worse than a child that just went on a murder spree trying to kill as many and as fast as possible. Sans had to make sure she wouldn’t turn out that way. He had to make her see just exactly what would happen to her if she ever went down that road. With that goal in mind he was finally abble to secure a semblance of calm.

Dan copied all the videos he would need into his laptop and bid them a good evening.

“What’s wrong, Sans?” Undyne asked once he was gone and Sans noticed his pupils were so dim his eye sockets looked empty and there was sweat dripping down his skull.

“nothing. just… wouldn’t want her on the other side.” He said before he could stop himself.

“AW, you sacred?” She said mockingly and Toriel glared at her before turning to Sans.

“I see what you mean, Sans. Let us just be grateful that isn’t the case.”

“and if she turns against us?” _since the cat is out of the bag_ , he thought as Dusk jumped to his lap purring at him, _i might as well just ask._

“Nah. That punk is too nice to do that. I may not see souls like you do but I can read facial expressions just fine.

Before he could give reign to his negativity, which was hard to contain considering how close he had been to having a panic attack, he heard the front door burst open and several voices trailing behind it.

Toriel quickly busied herself with her cooking so as not to rouse suspicion within the children and Undyne and Mettaton went to greet them all. Sans decided to tag along with the later.

“UNDYNE! I’VE OBSERVED THE PHYSICAL PROWESS OF THESE DIFFERENTLY SIZED CANINES AND I BELIEVE WE WOULD US BENEFIT MUTUALLY IF THEY JOINED OUR TRAINING SOMETIMES! THE MALE DOG IS PRETTY STRONG, THE BIGGER FEMALE DOG IS INCREDIBLY FAST AND THE SMALLER FEMALE DOG, THOUGH NOT AS FAST, DODGED ALL MY ATTAMPTS ON CAPTURING HER!” Papyrus prattled on excitedly as Undyne listened attentively.

“Training? What sort of training?” Miranda asked looking slightly worried.

Her question was ignored as Papyrus and Undyne become more and more excited with the idea. Monster Kid and Flowey joined them in the noise and Frisk frantically signed his suggestions and opinions.

“heya, kid.” He swayed Miranda’s attention to himself as he observed her intently. Still no sign of her soul or it’s changes of color though. She covered her chest with her crossed arms looking miffed at something. He took the chance as everyone else seemed too distracted to notice their conversation. “heard about what happened. saw the video too, so i’m not gonna _beat_ around the bush here. ” He looked straight at her eyes. “if you ever try any of those stunts with my friends and family…” His sockets became void of light and his voice deepened with threat. “ **y o u ’ r e g o i n g t o h a v e a b a d t i m e.** ”

He watched as Miranda shivered at his tone and then her whole aura changed colors from dull gray to bluish gray so fast it gave him mental whiplash. And then she glared. And not a normal kind of glare either. Her eyes looked cold as ice as she stared at him as if ready to kill him just there and then. It was only for a brief second but it was enough to freeze him in place. Then she lightly swayed as the gray-blue was pushed aside by dull gray again and she looked up at him with what seemed like a playful smirk before settling into a serious expression with a playful glint still shining in her eyes

She closed the distance between them both smoothly until she was two feet away from him.

“DON’T YOU DISRESPECT ME, LITTLE MAN!” She said as she repeatedly poked several times at his sternum, finishing by slashing her finger upwards hitting his nasal bone, forcing his skull back. He stumbled and fell on the couch and she neared him again. “Don’t you derogate or deride.”

Miranda stood akimbo looking down on him. Why had she prolonged ‘deride’? He couldn’t understand her movements and reactions at all, as he rubbed at his hurting nasal bone. He vaguely noticed everyone had stopped to stare at them.

“You’re in MY world now not YOUR world!” She splayed one of her hands on her chest with force before pointing at him. Then she pointed to her head with a smirk. Her words seemed sung, now. “And I’ve got friends on the other side.”

Two seconds of silence followed her tirade and then, coming from Mettaton’s speakers came a ‘he’s got friend’s on the other side’ sung by multiple voices as a chorus of sorts. Miranda looked and the robot in surprise as he produced a microphone and tossed it at her. She was smiling now.

It seemed she had missed some sort of spoken cue and then she proceeded with the song.

“Sit down at my table.” She twirled Frisk towards the seat at his side on the couch. “Put your minds at ease!” She ruffled their hair lightly before pirouetting away. “If you relax it will enable me to do…” and stopped in a pose between Mettaton and Papyrus. “anything I please!” She pushed the two together before sashaying away leaving behind a blushing robot and a star struck skeleton.

She moved towards Monster Kid, holding him in her arms. “I can read your future.” She exchanged MK by Flowey who had ended up in Undyne’s arms when she had twirled Frisk away. “I can change it ‘round some, too.” She danced to the side of the couch holding the flower pot as if dancing with it while Flowey protested. “I’ll look deep into your heart and soul…” She jumped backwards over the armrest landing on his lap sideways pulling his face towards hers by his chin “You do have a soul, don’t you, Sans?” She spoke before rolling away from his lap and holding Flowey above her head majestically. “Make your wildest dreams come true!”

She put the pot on top of her head and held out her left hand pointing at her dogs. “I got voodoo,” Then her cats. “I got hoodoo,” She pulled Flowey from her head and put him right face to face with him as Flowey began hissing at him as if getting into the song, and perhaps he was. One never knew with that plant. “I got things I ain’t even tried!”

She put Flowey down carefully in Frisk’s lap who was clapping enthusiastically by then before going back to her akimbo position with a smug grin. “And I got friends on the other side.”

‘He’s got friends on the other side’ Said the chorus again as the instrumental went on playing from Mettaton’s speakers.

“The cards, the cards, the cards will tell.” She pulled credit cards from her purse. “The past, the present and the future as well. The cards the cards, just take three. “She played with her credit cards before replacing them with a real deck that Undyne had unearthed by then and them offering three to her. “Take a little trip into your future with me.”

“Now you, young lass, are from within the sea.” She said still turned towards Undyne and the she turned towards Frisk who was silently giggling while holding onto Flowey. “You come from two long lines of royalty.” And then she spoke as if imparting a secret with the two kids. “I’m a royal myself on the ‘pain’ side, ya know?” She turned towards Mettaton “Your lifestyle’s high.” Now towards her cat, Dusk who was rather thin. “But your funds are low.” She pulled out a dog biscuit from her purse and waved it over Hade’s nose. “You need to get a lil’ owner whose purse got dough.”

Miranda sat down beside the dog who was now feasting on the biscuit, having produced other two for the other two. She put her arm around his shoulder as he ate.  
“Mommy cut you off, huh bigboy? Now y’all gotta feed but the food’s just dog chow. You wanna be free. Chomp on whatever. But freedom… takes green!” She stood up harshly and sang again. “It’s the green, it’s the green, it’s the green you need!!!!” And then she turned towards the dogs with a sly smile. “And when I look into your future it’s the green that I see.”

She turned towards him again and he felt sweat dotting his skull as he feared what was to come. “On you little man, I don’t want to waste much time. You’ve been punning around all your life.” Ok that was a bit funny, he had to admit, but he doubted there wasn’t another surprise coming from her. “You’ve been punning around your mother, and all monsters and your brother.” She finger counted, turning her back on him as Papyrus cheered on her telling him off in song. She turned abruptly to him. “And if you was married… you’d be punning around your wife.” The intensity on her face grew and she seemed to look right through him. “But in your future, the you that I see…” Then she seemed to back off in disappointment, shrugging her shoulder and looking apologetically at Papyrus. “Is exactly the sort of man you always been!”

Papyrus released an anguished “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” as everyone else cracked up, himself included. Miranda extended her right hand at Papyrus and Mettaton as she now held the mike with her left one and went back to talking instead of singing.

“Shake my hand. Come on boys, won’t you shake the poor sinner’s hand?” Papyrus took a hold of her hand slightly confused. “Yes…” She began to dance wildly pulling Papyrus and then everyone else one by one to join her. “Are you ready?” The chorus repeated what she said sentence by sentence. “Are you ready? Transformation central! Reformation central! Transmogrification central!” The chorus stopped repeating “Can you feel it? You’re changin’, you’re changin’, you’re changin’ alright! I hope you’re satisfied.” She turned sharply towards him who was the only one still not dancing, preferring to observe from the couch. “But if you ain’t, don’t blame me!!! You can blame my friends on the other side!” She prolonged the last word as the chorus was back, spouting ‘you got what you wanted but you lost what you had’ The song came to a stop when Miranda, face a foot away from his put her finger to her lips and shushed him”

Looking very much pleased she dropped the mike theatrically and then her aura color changed again as she pointed a finger gun at him. “Bang Bang Bang boy! You goin’ down, down, down boy! To the ground where you left our heart to bleed. Bang we shot you, karma tastes so sweet.” She sang, clearly another different song and then winked. There was something off about her demeanor. Not that there wasn’t before but Sans couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “Peace out!”

Everyone around began to cheer, even Toriel who had come out from the kitchen to watch halfway through. She turned towards him after accepting some compliments.

“Now for realsies! Ya better not threaten this lil lady here again!” she said splaying her hand over her own sternum. He frowned at her odd choice of words since she wasn’t one to use third person. “ ‘Cause she really does have friends on the other side. Friends who don’t like her to be threatened. And I’m not talking about the cats and dogs either.” Back to gray as she seemed to change from confident to sort of shy. “And could you please stop staring at my b-boobs? I noticed you staring once in a while. They aren’t even that b-big!”

“what!?” He asked in confusion but the room was already exploding around him as the others took notice of the first half of what she had said.

“MY BROTHER THREATENED YOU? HOW COULD THAT BE! HE IS FAR TOO LAZY FOR THAT SORT OF NONSENSE!” Papyrus.

“Whoa! The punk really did it? Who would have thought?!” Undyne.

“Darling, I must say… You dealt with that in such a classy way. You must surely be interested in some sort of career in the show busyness industry.” Mettaton.

“You got owned, Sans!” Frisk.

“Serves the smiley trashbag right!” Flowey.

“…” Toriel with a stern look, before cracking up at his befuddlement.

“That was cool, yo! But I’m sure Undyne could have done it much better.” Monster Kid.

Miranda smiled, blushing at the attention, the most persistent being Mettaton.

“I used to be on a choir long ago. I was actually a soprano so this song was too low pitched for me. But that was way too long ago and I already have a job I love, Metts. I just like to occasionally sing, that’s all. Besides, you are the star, here. Thanks for the mike, by the way.”

Sans couldn’t find a way to insert himself in the talk to correct Miranda on her misgiving about him staring at her chest but Toriel, seeing his blushing, uncomfortable face and realizing the cause, intervened for him. But first she needed to get sensitive ears away.

“Dinner is ready everyone, Papyrus, would you please make sure the kids wash their hands?”

“OF COURSE QUEEN TORIEL! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM MORE THAN HONORED TO FOLLOW YOUR COMMANDS!” And he left with the kids, still talking excitedly, in tow.

“Miranda, I fear I must correct you on one of your assumption. Sans wasn’t really staring at your breasts. He was just checking out your soul.”

“My… soul?”

“Perhaps this conversation should be saved for later. It is a touchy subject but I just wanted to correct this misunderstanding before it got out of hand.”

“I’m not sure if having someone checking out my soul is any less intrusive and immoral than checking out my ‘assets’, to be honest.” She said after absorbing the information while sending an irked glare at him. “But we can talk later, I guess.” She turned to him again. “You should change out of those, though. They are really uptight when it comes to hygiene in McDonalds.”

With that said she went to wash her hands as well, leaving him to wonder how she knew about McDonalds policy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It really was about time for sans to realize he needed to chill out. Thing is, while Rajani would have dunked him pretty hard, that would have just proved his point in not trusting miranda (since Raj is a 'action' gall and not a 'talk' one) Miranda,however doesn't like being too mean to others and is constantly justifying other peoples actions to herself like so: 'sans is saying this because i'm a stranger and he doesn't know me and i understand that, i would be on edge too'.
> 
> However while usually she would just ignore (and be quietly hurt) such accusations, this time Rajani was beyond pissed so she had to act differently to calm them both down and still show him that she didn't like his accusations. Singing came naturally.
> 
> as for had I have of the comic I'll be trying to post it now (lets see if this works)
> 
>  


	12. Chapter 11: The Fight Inside is Coursing Through my Veins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An exchange of information. You learn about soul stuff and we get a look at your origins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly when I first decided to write this chapter i didn't intend on including Miranda telling everyone about Rajani because I thought it was too soon. I only wanted for her to find out about souls to space this fic's lore through multiple chapters instead of all at once and that she would internalize that knowledge and research by herself afterwards. I came to realize that wouldn't be an option. Rajani seriously doesn't give a fuck if they know and Miranda isn't unfair enough to demand information without giving back if asked for.  
> For some more spoilerific things about the chap see the end.

You finally found some semblance of calm within your own mind as you ate. Today’s events had been a lot to take in. You were attacked, defended MK again, fought while using a lot of nerdy references, got relocated to the monster compound while awaiting for two trials…

You had thought the emotional upheaval would have been done and over with there and then. You had thought that all you would need to do now was watch a giant skeleton, a human kid, a monster kid, and a flower have fun with your dogs. It had been fun. You knew the main reason for the walk was so that the others could show Toriel the video and so that Dan could analyze it in a calmer manner, but it still had been an afternoon well spent.

And then a short and somehow chubby (how...?) skeleton decided to threaten you.

Rajani was instantly out for blood, still on edge over everything that had happened that day. You weren’t even sure how you had managed to hold Rajani back. Being on edge too made you more likely to break down from a threat… So… you did what you did best to hide everything churning at you. You did what you had always done when the creeping feeling of loneliness and worthlessness hit you so hard you could barely do more than curl on the floor sideways, knees tucked under your chin, and look absentmindedly at nothing at all.

You sang.

You sang to appease Rajani, who always loved to hear you sing. You sang so that Sans wouldn’t see how much he had affected you… And you sang so you wouldn’t cry. Your voice held the lower notes steadily, though not beautifully. You were a soprano after all. Your strength lay in the higher notes. But you held up good enough, your voice slightly rusty from lack of use.

It had been so long since you had last sung so loudly. These last few years your voice had been hardly more than a murmur as you tried not to attract attention to yourself. Attracting attention was a foolproof way to end up dead out on the streets, after all.

Singing always made you feel better and the fact that you used the song to poke fun at the rude skeleton and teach him a lesson or two made it all better.

Rajani couldn’t help herself and added her own tidbit in the end. You figured you owed her as much after shoving her away from controlling your body. At least she wasn’t beating anyone to a pulp… You would have rather she hadn’t worded the comeback at Sans the way she had…

Rajani’s opinion on the matter was that keeping your personality issue a secret was more of a weakness than a protection. Information was power, according to her. By keeping her a secret you would be valuing that information far more than it deserved, turning it into a potential for blackmail eventually. 

You thought her bleak prediction of blackmailing too farfetched but understood where she was coming from with that. You promised that if push came to shove you would come clean about it. But if you weren’t questioned in the subject everything would remain the same. Last thing you wanted was to be viewed as a freak of nature or as a faker. Your family hadn’t known of your condition, still didn’t as far as you were concerned. The only ones who knew were Sophie and Daniel. Daniel because he had a similar condition so it was easier to open up to him… _**or DID he really. He seemed to use it as an excuse a lot**_ , and Sophie because she had been a longtime friend and you thought you could trust her as well… you thought… But thinking something doesn’t make things true. Now you know that.

So you didn’t really feel thrilled about the prospects of telling them about Rajani. First off, they might not even believe you like most of the population. Sure that gimmick was fun to see in movies and tv series, but facing the real thing? No one. Ever. Believed.

And in the chance, they did believe you there was the possibility that they would think you were insane. And that was the last thing you could deal with right now.

With that put aside, all that was left now was the soul talk. Apparently Sans hadn’t been staring at your chest but yes at your soul.

You… weren’t sure what to feel about that. For a moment, as much as you had felt irked at such blatant objectification before, you had also felt an inkling of female satisfaction at feeling desired, even if for the wrong reasons. Years of being mocked, degraded and, later of, neglected had destroyed any feeling of self-worth when it came to that particular topic.

Now that you knew the true reason you couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed, even as you felt relief. But you also felt odd about the whole issue. You knew that with the arrival of the monsters to the surface there had been a lot of talk about souls but you hadn’t cared much to find out more about that. To you what idea you had of souls was based largely in religion or popular fiction, like the Dark Hunter series from Sherrilyn Kenyon and when it had come to the monster you had thought in the the first one that had been talked about with all the religion extremists.

As far as your knowledge of the soul issue went, on one hand, the religious one, it was some sort of very important thing that you shouldn’t sell away to the devil, without any physical way to be seen or measured so it might as well not be there at all. On the other, the Dark Hunters one, it was practically useless… unless you died without one. Then you would be plagued with a nonexistence of pure pain no matter how much good you had done for others.

And now you knew they could be seen or read. You… weren’t sure what to feel about it. On one hand, you are curious about your own soul, on the other you worried about what soul reading could mean to you. Could Sans see your whole life? Your whole emotional grid? Could he see how utterly useless you were?

Well obviously he couldn’t or else he wouldn’t need to be constantly looking at it to try. Toriel had said as much. But that was Sans alone. What about the other monsters? Could they see?

You held back from questioning as dinner was eaten. Asgore and Alphys arrived just in time to join you for dinner. Flowey… seemed pretty determined in scaring you with his antics. He had tried several times since he had come home from school with Frisk only to be faced by your unfazed expression. That had only made him try harder. Rajani initially was irritated at his antics but was starting to find them sort of amusing in the sense of a kitten hissing at a big dog and fuming at its lack of reaction.

Now, as you dined, Flowey took the chance to add some fresh threats directed right at your most recent inquiry.

“I bet your soul would taste delicious, even if you are an idiot.” He said maliciously.

“Really? Huh. Good to know your favorite flavor is ‘idiot’. But I’m afraid I can’t accept your proposition, though you are cute in your own way. You’re just not my type.” You replied solemnly and everyone in the table burst laughing aside from Papyrus, who nodded approvingly at your serious answer, and Flowey himself.

“I wasn’t flirting with you!!!” Flowey shouted out, blushing deeply.

“Oh, but you did call me ‘delicious’, didn’t you? If that’s not flirting, I don’t know what is!” You replied again with a small smile. Your answer was nothing more than a very angry unintelligible rambling on Flowey’s part as his blush deepened.

“You don’t scare easily, do you, darling?” Mettaton asked after the laughing died down.

“You… could say that, I guess.” You admit. No way in hell would you actually go into detail on how you’ve lived through scarier stuff than a creepy flower.

“So what was that about a choir you mentioned earlier? Have I heard of it?” He went on and you could see the calculating gleam in his eye.

“I doubt. It was from Portugal and even there it wasn’t that well known. It used to be pretty good, considering my country’s standards. It wasn’t even a professional choir so to speak. I paid to be there and be taught, they didn’t pay me to be there. It didn’t help that the conductor was an aaaaa… an annoying idiot who only catered to his favorites. He did have a nasty attitude on top of all that. It did make for a more disciplined choir, but he over did it. That, plus his need to cater to his favorites, plus his unexplainable hatred towards me, is what made me get out and even then I had wasted too much of my time with him hoping he could spare me a solo that mattered without switching me midway for someone who didn’t sing better.”

“He did what now!?” Mettaton asked, horrified.

“The one time I had a solo on a big event midway through it he asked me to step back so another singer could take the stage. Had it been a smaller event… well it would still have stung, but on such a big one, which is rare, in which I had my family and friends there watching… it was downright humiliating. He excused himself by saying I was a key off but it was barely noticeable. The fact that not only was the person he called to replace me one of his favorites, but also that she didn’t sing it any better than I had, made it all worse.”

“That is show business, my beauty. Still, that was shameless on his part. Are you sure that wasn’t a professional choir. It does sound as competitive as one.”

“Perhaps in a way it could be seen as that but no, it really wasn’t. I went there to sing because I loved singing. I would have liked even better to be able to show the people that mattered that I was good at it, hence why I wanted a solo. He mostly denied me the opportunity unless it was to replace one of his favorites last minute. That was the one time I had one for myself.

“I’m surprised you didn’t follow that as a professional career. From what I saw you were good at it. I can’t believe you would treat this as just a hobby.”

“Hah! If I were to become a professional at every single thing I held interest in I would also be a famous novelist, a mangaka, a biologist, a forensic scientist, a surgeon, a kendo expert, an astronaut, a paleontologist, and whatever you call to an expert in mythology. I’m pretty eclectic when it comes down to it.”

“Did you say mangaka? Did you draw manga?” Undyne asked, suddenly interested.

“Sure. Still do whenever I feel like it. The company I work for doesn’t like the style, though, so I don’t get to use it often.”

“How good are you?”

“Hummmm… Well… don’t want to sound haughty about it but I’d say I’m fairly good. Why?

“Can you s-show us?” Alphys asked timidly.

“Not right now, we are eating. But yeah, sure. But why do you want to know?”

“W-we are s-sort of… Well… W-we want to make a manga but our drawings… The story board is mostly done, too.”

“Are you going to sell it?”

“Nah, we just want to draw it for us to see!” Undyne said confidently.

“Oh, a sort of a private project, then? And you want my skills, am I right?” You pondered on the subject. You did like private projects like those, and unlike your animations, a comic book was far faster to work on.

“OF COURSE!”

“I guess I could help out but… I already have a job that needs my focus so I’m not sure how much help I would be.” Not to mention you would leave after the trials.

“Thanks punk. We appreciate it!” Undyne said.

“A-any help w-would be appreciated, r-really…” Alphys added.

“FRISK IS INQUIRING EXACTLY WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSIONAL OCUPATION, SKINNY HUMAN!” Papyrus translated a very curious Frisk.

“I work in an animation company. I do a bit of everything but my strongest points are story boarding and character design and development. Sometimes I get stuck with the math, though.”

“AAAAA… THEY ARE SAYING THAT YOU MAKE IT SOUND SORT OF BORING…” Papyrus says hesitantly as if afraid of offending you.

“Well it can be. I was never very good at the math and surprisingly it needs a lot of it, but I don’t usually get to deal with that area. They play on my strengths, thankfully. And it does take a lot of time to render the frames. But even if it is long hard work I love the results. Don’t you?” You tease the kid with a grin and they nod vigorously in response.

“I REALLY FIND IT INTERESTING, HOWEVER, AT HOW MANY INTERESTS YOU MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY. YOU TRULLY ARE, AS YOU PUT IT, ECLECTIC. AND AS MUCH AS I ADMIRE YOUR DIVERSITY OF INTERESTS, I HAVE TO ASK… WHY NOT JUST CHOOSE ONE THING?” This time it was clear Papyrus was asking for himself and not on Frisk’s behalf, not only because Frisk hadn’t signed anything, but also the curious expression on Papyrus’ face.

“Well… how do I put it…? There is no unnecessary knowledge. Every little thing can be used for a story or to define a certain character. Everything can be used. Sometimes I even have to research to get a certain character or story aspect right, but if it happens to be within my range of interests it’s even better since I will already have a decent amount of knowledge at hand.”

“I CAN GET BEHIND SUCH BELIEFS. THEY SEEM VERY NOBLE AND PROACTIVE. VERY MUCH UNLIKE MY BROTHER’S INSISTENCE ON PUNS AND SLEEPING ALL DAY! HOWEVER I STILL RATHER IMPROVE A SKILL ABOVE ALL ELSE. MINE IS MAKING SPAGHETTI! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL BE THE BEST SPAGHETTI ARTISAN IN THE WORLD!”

“Considering all your enthusiasm over the subject I’d be surprised if you don’t. By the way, when will I be able to try your famous friendship spaghetti?”

The rest of dinner proceeded in relaxed banter. You didn’t speak much with Sans since you were still a bit upset over his threat but still managed to smile at the puns he exchanged with the others. He did try to talk to you, probably to ease the tension between you two, but you weren’t having it so, aside from some awkward small talk, he didn’t get far. Aside from him you talked with everyone. 

You complimented Toriel on her pie. Even though you disliked cinnamon, the way she used it didn’t bother you much. In fact perhaps you would even learn not to feel bothered by the taste. As for butterscotch, it turned out it was some sort of caramel kind of sweet and since you did like caramel, you liked butterscotch too. She told you about her snail pie and you told her about how you ate snails in Portugal too and would share the recipe with her if she liked it. Frisk seemed to gape at your strange tastes but to you eating snails in summer was a very regular occurrence. It was also decided that you would sometimes cook for everyone too so that the burden wouldn’t fall on Toriel alone. Also because you insisted on it since you weren’t allowed to pay rent for your stay.

Undyne and Alphys talked to you a little more about their manga and ended up asking you about manga you liked, aside from Skip Beat. You told them about Akatsuki no Yona. It had a bit of fantasy, a bit of romance and a pretty badass princess to boot. It had politics playing a big part on the story and how the main character had to circumvent them to keep a war from starting. Asgore seemed to gain interest in it. You told them there was an anime but you didn’t like how they had changed the blood red color of Yona’s hair to magenta. Sure, they had made the real blood magenta too but you found it ridiculous that they had to ‘girlify’ her hair instead of keeping it as its original badass color. Toriel forbid the couple from playing the anime on anime night because of the violence. She didn’t want Frisk to see such things.

You talked a bit more about pasta with Papyrus. He revealed to you that, despite spaghetti being his favorite pasta, he liked all other kinds as well and you told him about tortellini and gnocchi, peaking his interest further. You promised to make him some gnocchi when it was your turn to cook. It’s not every day that you find a pasta made with potatoes, after all.

Mettaton still wanted to somehow hire you to his band but you refused. He insisted some more and you still refused, but you did tell him about the theater classes you had and that had interested him enough to listen for a while, before launching in a tirade of his own accomplishments.

Flowey was still determined on trying to creep you out and seemed even more determined with each failed attempt. After a while you stopped responding to him in any way, getting tired of his shenanigans. 

Frisk was a sweetheart. They wanted to know all about you and they were the ones you had to fend yourself against when it came to more touchy subjects regarding your past. For some reason, though, they seemed more interested in talking about any boyfriends and ex-boyfriends you had, though. It… was starting to resemble the questions you would find on a dating site or something. And sometimes they would even flirt with you. Alphys and Undyne seemed to perk up when the subject of boyfriends was broached and were disappointed you didn’t elaborate and dismayed when you closed off the subject by stating you weren’t interested in having a special someone in the foreseeable future.

Finally, everyone had finished the meal and you immediately started helping Toriel and Papyrus with the dishes. Once everything was cleaned up you three joined the others on the living room. You had been more talkative than usual during dinner but attributed it to nervous energy. You did have the tendency to either internalize your apprehension or to babble a lot to help release it a bit.

“So…” You started as soon as you entered the living room. “We were talking about souls, right? Can all of you see them?”

“No, dear child! Only Sans can do that. It’s a special quirk to him only, not monster kind in general.” Toriel explained.

“Oh! So… what does soul reading actually entails? Do you see my memories or something?” You ask to Sans since there was no one else with the expertise.

“no, that would be some form of mind reading. to put it bluntly i can see the color of your soul, i can’t actually see the soul unless it’s drawn out of the body. i merely see the color that’s pulsing out from it. i basically can get some information out of it too, like your hp, your lv and exp and so on, as well the characteristic your soul tends to lean towards.”

“Huh… What’s all that? And why do you have trouble reading mine?”

“ok it’ll be easier if i do this.” He pointed his left hand towards your chest, his palm facing you. You felt a bit of static from your chest as some letters appeared before it.  
.  
.

> **  
> “Miranda”**
> 
> **LV 1**
> 
> **HP 2058/2058**
> 
> **AT 27 (0) EXP: 1**
> 
> **DF 24 (0)**
> 
> ***You want some answers. Now!  
>  **  
> 

.  
.  
.

“What the heck!? Am I in a video game or something?” You ask alarmed.

“No young one. We have been made aware of the similarities between soul stats and video game stats but no, you are not in a video game.” Asgore told you calmly but there was some tenseness in his voice. In fact a lot of the monsters around you seemed tense for some reason.

“Huh. So… I’ve gathered I have an absurd amount of health. What about everything else?”

“lv stands for LOVE which is an acronym for level of violence. you’re at 1 which is the lowest and that’s a good thing.” Sans tells you.

“Talk about giving love a bad name! And here I was thinking LV stood for level.” You commented feeling off put about the discovery.

“at stands for attack and df for defense. basically, it tells how much damage you can inflict on others and how much damage you can defend your soul from at a time. both are affected by your intent. if you intend to really hurt someone your at will maximize its damage and if you don’t you might at the very best make 1 of damage. as for df same applies. if you want to survive the blow with all your might you will maximize your defense and if you are feeling particularly suicidal it might not work at all.” Sans went on explaining.

“So, basically, AT and DF are not set in stone, they represent my potential attack and defense power at its best, am I right?”

“you could put it that way. as for exp it stands for execution points. it represents the people you have harmed and killed. if you gather enough exp your lv will go up. lv going up means you disconnect further from others and are able to more easily hurt them. usually the normal amount of exp should be 0. yours is at 1 meaning you killed someone.” Sans accused as you felt you blood drain from your face. You could see Flowey wanted to make a nasty comment but Frisk covered his mouth. Now you understood why they all were tense.

“A soul can tell all that?” You ask slowly trying to remain calm. You need to get them to talk about something else fast. Rajani intervenes. “Are these stats all you see?”

“an actual soul tells way more than just that and no, i can see a bit more. i can see the color and intensity of your aura too. the way it pulses its light is very telling when it comes to understanding if you are telling the truth or not, as well as realizing your emotions at the immediate time. think of it as reading someone’s expression as they talk to you, only it’s harder for the other person to lie to you because you’ll know right away since souls can’t lie even if one lies to themselves.” Sans told you while staring at you pointedly. He still wanted to ask about the EXP. They all did. You need to make him talk about something else.

“That’s just the light, though. You did mention color as well.” You point out. This time Rajani didn’t even need to intervene.

“that’s the thing about you that has me stumped! monster souls are white with a colored core and they pulse white with a hint of color. human souls come in colors alone. there are seven colors all in all and they all stand for a personality trait. red for determination, orange for bravery, yellow for justice, green for kindness, cyan for patience, blue for integrity and purple for perseverance. you however, not only fluctuate between two colors, but also one of the colors is gray.” He tells you sounding very much frustrated. You pondered at the oddness of that statement. You already knew you weren’t exactly the conventional sort of person but to think even your soul was weird to a monster used to seeing souls…

“Why is it strange for a soul to have two colors?” Rajani asks snapping you out of your thoughts and, after some thinking you begin to think a theory of your own as to why you had two colors. This time it’s Alphy’s who answers.

“A s-soul changing color means a change in the overall p-personality. S-so far it has only b-been seen happen in s-special cases s-such as deeply t-traumatic events and even t-then the shift is p-permanent and not a b-back and forth change like t-the one Sans describes.”

“Hmm… I… may have a… theory about this.” You say in a soft tone, regretting soon after. But if there is proof you need to know! You think of Rajani who was listening as intently as you. 

_Raj, can you help me?_

“O-oh?” Alphys exclaimed as you felt Rajani ponder on all possible routes. She didn’t mind the others finding out about her but she knew you did so she was trying to find a way of getting your answers but still keeping her a secret.

“Just to debunk or prove the theory I’ll need Sans to tell me when he sees the color changing.” You point at him as you speak. You say after a moment of silence, knowing the others were waiting on you to explain yourself. You had to say something. Finally Rajani reached a conclusion but you didn’t like it much. _**Of course. If there is pseudo-physical evidence that I exist I want to know too! But… the chances of them finding out are very big so don’t count on keeping it secret.**_

“you changed for a bit just now before going back to gray.” Sans immediately told you.

“Wait! You sensed that too? Interesting…” _He can even sense when we speak! What sorcery is this!_

_**Not sorcery, just soul reading.** _

_But you know what this means, don’t you?_

_**We need to see it, just to make sure. But yeah, I know!** _

“hey, you listening to me there?” You finally notice that Sans had been trying to talk to you for some time.

“Huh, Sorry. Conference with myself inside my brain. I think I know what it is but… just to make sure… Can you show me my soul?” You expected many things in response to your request but having every single monster around you blush deeply and sputtering as Frisk giggled was not one of them. “Did I… say something wrong?”

“ _Ahem_! M-My child. There are only three situations where a soul being out of the body is appropriate. When fighting a monster, when completely alone with a soul doctor and with your mate. Souls are intimate things and the only times such intimacy is breached is in fights, and only because drawing on magic for a monster needs the soul and a human soul would come out by default, and when a soul doctor examines it, the sole propose to see if you have a healthy soul and see how to heal it. Aside from these two particular circumstances we do not just pop out our souls to anyone.” Toriel explained.

“Oh! You mean I basically just asked Sans to get down and dirty with me indirectly or something?” You finally say, blushing, making Sans sputter even more before chuckling a bit. So, souls were for monsters what buckets were for trolls…

“W-well, yes and no. It is more romantic than that.” Alphys says. Okay… so, not like troll buckets, then.

“I see I still have lots to learn about your culture so that I’m not so culturally insensitive.” You said feeling embarrassed. At least it seemed that your antics made the others temporarily forget your EXP problem, considering how the tenseness of the room simply evaporated. Well… most everyone. Sans still had a gleam on his eyes that translated to ‘I’m onto you’ loud and clear. “I am awfully curious about all those soul thingamabobs and will ask more about them but I don’t want to get side tracked so… Flowey! You seem pretty determined in making me fear you! Wanna fight me?”

You are met with stunned silence all around you before he retorts with only a menacing grin on his face. Before anyone could say or do anything else the world around you grew dark and all color disappeared. Now you only saw black and white. Flowey stood before you, still in Frisk’s hands as they seemed to panic. You see something red glow but are distracted by a sudden feeling in your chest. 

It was some sort of tugging sensation that bothered you. You tried to fight it to no avail. Suddenly a cartoon-like heart popped out from the place the tugging felt strongest at. You and Rajani both gapped at the sight in front of you.

Before you was a heart. The surface seemed like transparent colored glass that was about half an inch thick and within that was a smaller heart, probably the core sans ha mentioned, completely opaque. It was split right down the middle in two colors, the right side a pavement grey and the left side seemed an odd mix of royal blue and gray, you supposed that compared to actual blue it would seem very faded in color, but comparing to the grayness of the other half it almost sparkled bright against it.

Sans, Alphys and the kids drew nearer as they gapped at your soul as well.

“I-I’ve never seen such thing!” Alphys said.

 _Which half do you think it’s mine?_ You asked Rajani as you both kept looking. There were two horizontal indentations on the front side of your soul, one of them seemed almost like a scar while the other looked like an open wound that ran so deep it reached the opaque core. You were pretty sure that wasn’t how a soul was supposed to look like.

You both saw the gray side pulse as you spoke. Rajani decided to reply to you mentally just to make sure.

 _ **I think you are the gray?**_ The bluish-gray side pulsed as she talked.

“It’s real…” Rajani said out loud echoing your thoughts, taking control of your body almost absentmindedly. The bluish-gray side was the one shining brighter now. “We are both real…”

And you both felt like crying too.

“what?” Oh, right! You forgot Sans was there. Before Rajani could retort to him she saw something coming at you from the corner of her eye and rolled to the side, your soul following you.

You saw a white something had imbed itself on the wall that had just been behind you. Rajani stood up stretching your arms nonchalantly.

“Youth roll for the win!” Rajani *** taunt** ed while making a peace sign, readying herself for another attack.

The fact that you both had dodged the attack seemed to irk Flowey beyond understanding. And he shot several more of those white thingies. Rajani expertly dodged them again and took a moment to *** check Frisk** who had also been dragged into battle. In front of them was a vivid red soul that shone brightly beyond comprehension. For a moment you saw something flicker by them but hadn’t been able to make out what it was before your soul was hit with one of the white… seeds? 

Your mind went momentarily blank with pain. It burned hot-white through all your body like someone had replaced all your blood with melted metal. It was gone as quick as it had come but to you it had been so unbearable that it had felt like longer. Rajani faltered but quickly regained control over her motions and relocated to a safer spot. Flowey laughed saying that it was no use hiding. You *** check** ed him and saw that he had escaped Frisk’s arms and was now hanging from the ceiling by vines that came out from his flower pot. You didn’t see his soul anywhere.

You were suddenly surrounded by white seeds in a circle around you. There was nowhere to run, both you and Rajani knew it. The seed hadn’t taken a lot of damage out of you but it had hurt a lot. You were pretty sure you had only felt that pain because it had caught Rajani by surprise and that she would make sure not to let you feel anything more. 

You… couldn’t bear the thought of her getting that much hurt because of you. If someone deserved to feel pain it was you. You were always the most useless of the two. Sometimes you wondered why she even insisted you remained as main personality when you had so little to offer to the world. If you could take the pain for her this time you would.

***You are filled with…**

You jumped forward before the sentence that appeared next to your soul was complete. You took over your body and ran at the white seeds to break away from the circle. You were so focused you didn’t realize that the health bar that represented your soul had split into two, one with Raj written on top and the other with Mir. You didn’t notice the collective gasp that was heard throughout the room at your actions, you didn’t notice Flowey’s surprised expression, you didn’t notice Rajani’s screams. But most of all you hadn’t noticed the thin layer of gray that coated your soul. If you had you would have noticed that it looked like it had been painted over with opaque gray nail polish, obscuring its true colors.

Two seeds hit you straight in the soul as you ran past the circle limit, the pain making you whimper but you kept running and then used the couch to jump up and grab Flowey’s pot, forcing him to detach with your unexpected weight.

“Battle over.” You told him as the nail polish like coating pealed from your soul, its job done.

“S-selflessness.” Your heard Alphys’ voice say, looked at her and followed her line of sight to your soul. Under it was written ‘ *** You are filled with selflessness.** ’.

The words changed to ' *** Flowey is too mesmerized to fight** ' and you noticed him staring at your soul, mouth agape. You look up at the glass-like floating heart too, now completely back to its original colors. Floating where your health bar used to be you finally noticed the two heath bars in its place. The one with Rajani’s pet name had nearly all your 2058 HP and was missing only a few couple of points from that seed that had hit her but the other, the one under your name, was completely empty.

“Wow! You took all my health with just two little seed looking thingies!?” You asked surprised at that fact. Color returned to the world as your soul returned to your chest. You were surprised that you felt only slightly tired considering your health. You also had a headache but that was natural considering Rajani was loudly berating you for your recklessness.

“That one was empty from the start… Why… do you have two health bars?” Flowey asked in a small voice.

“Huh?”

Rajani shut up immediately and you realized the atmosphere was tense again and everyone around was looking at you like you had just suddenly smacked them on the head out of the blue. You set Flowey down on the coffee table and slumped on the floor next to it. Okay, what were you supposed to do now? You didn’t like this.

Rajani took over and slammed her hand down on the dark wood next to Flowey’s pot, snapping them from whatever trance they were in.

“I’m overwhelmed, I’m emotionally confused, I’m mentally confused and I think we need all to sit our asses down, chillax a bit and talk about this whole weirdness we just saw.” She said. Toriel looked at you sternly because of the word usage but sat down on an armchair. The others followed suit.

All the grownups seemed uneasy, Flowey and Frisk seemed particularly unsettled but the later sat by your side on the floor as if showing support, and Monster Kid seemed to feel both uneasy, mostly because of the others reactions, as well as exited over whatever your soul had done.

“I need an outsider’s perspective over what happened. I know what I felt happen and a few things I saw happen but that is just my version.” Rajani said. “What the actual f-” _Raj, language!_ “-UDGE WITH WHIP CREAM happened!”

Frisk poked Asgore and signed at him while looking at you. He translated.

“He is saying: Flowey entered a fight with you, then your soul glowed bluish-gray, then a friendliness pellet hit you, then you were surrounded by friendliness pellets, then you soul glowed gray, then your health bar split into two one completely empty and one with all the health, then your soul turned gray, then you fazed right through the pellets that didn’t do any damage to you, then the fight ended. Do you have a ghost inside you?”

“Oh! We have many things inside us but we can assure you ghosts aint one a them!” Rajani said.

“we?” Sans asked frowning. “it’s not the first time you speak of yourself in plural.” He noted.

“Whatever!” You felt Rajani ponder on what to tell them exactly. “Ok so from what I gather by this lil experiment I concluded three facts. Fact one: our… my soul is split into two vertically and each side glows individually, originating the color change in the aura. Fact two: My health can be split into two bars, each based on one of the halves. One has all the 2058 HP while the other, the gray one, has 0 HP. Fact three: My soul has some sort of property that turns it completely gray and absorbs the damage. It is based on the gray side and as such all damage is probably redirected there, however, because the HP is 0 no actual damage is made or it acts as a shield of sorts. Anyone has anything else to add?” Rajani asked to the others.

“H-hum… t-the text on your soul s-said something about… s-selflessness.” Alphys interceded. “We c-could assume that gray is another soul t-trait that is n-named as Selflessness.”

“Good point! I need to start writing this down.” 

You startle when someone else bangs on the table and Rajani looks at Frisk. He displays some drawing paper and crayons. Written messily in red were the facts Rajani had stated as well as what Alphys had added. Rajani gives him a thumbs up.

“Now on to questions that need answers!” Rajani says.

“Oh my god is it just me or are these guys all acting nerdier than usual?” Undyne commented. “All I want to know is why your soul is all split up right down to the middle like that!”

“And you just gave us the first question that needs answering. Welcome to the club, NERD!” Rajani said making the others chuckle a little.

“next should be what exactly is the gray color and why it has no hp.” Sans added.

“Next should be how the heck did I do that whole thing of changing my soul to grey completely.”

“that is not that odd, actually.” Sans commented.

“Well the soul splitting in half is normal for me and I aint complaining that you don’t know why because I aint assuming you should know why. My question stands!”

“Wait… you know why its split?” Undyne sputters.

“It’s just a theory… a SOUL theory!” Rajani pointed two finger guns at Undyne but The Game Theorists reference went by unnoticed. “But ya. I’m mostly sure of the reason why. It is pretty personal though. Another question is why the fu-” _LANGUAGE!_ “-NNY CHOPSTICKS do I have so much HP.

“Darling you can’t just drop a bomb like that and expect us to not ask you about it.” Mettaton intervened.

“Ok fine we jump the questions and go for the answers!” Rajani said. “You want to know about the split, right? I’m pretty sure I know why it’s split into two but to give you context I’ll have to tell you a long story. You up for that?”

“IT IS A BIT EARLY FOR MY STORY TIME AND IT IS USUALLY MY BROTHER WHO READS ME THE STORIES BUT I’LL ALLOW IT!” Papyrus said.

“Ok. I’ll try to shorten it as much as possible. This is already a big giant clusterfu-” _Language, Raj! LANGUAGE!!!_ “-DGE!” Rajani took a deep breath and entered story mode, probably the only time she was almost as calm and fine with the world as you. “Once there was a little girl. Unlike many little girls she was special in a bad way. You see, when she was conceived it was deliberate on the mother’s side alone. The mother already had one child but wanted another and that was a pretty standard reason. However, the mother knew the father was a good for nothing and she knew the marriage wouldn’t last. She did it not as a way to try and rekindle the ashes of their relationship ablaze once more but because she knew it would be harder to find a man willing to give her the second child she wanted. Though she was young most men frowned upon a relationship with a single mother. So, she used her husband to get another child, just like he had used her so many times before for easy money. At first things were fine. Sure, he wasn’t a good husband but he wasn’t overly bad either. Then he became cocky. He figured that a woman tied to him by two children, even though she was pretty independent, would stay with him out of need and he began acting out. Many of his shady dealings came back to torment his oldest daughter with death threats directed at her father and the mother knew it was time to leave. The little girl was only four years old by the time the divorce was accomplished. As per court dictation the little girl would have to spend a weekend every two weeks with her father. And her father knew how to use that against the mother. Every time the little girl was at his place he let her do whatever she wanted, encouraged her to do so, in fact. Made her believe that she was owed all that freedom. As was natural in a child’s mentality, she took those behaviors back to her mother’s place and was swiftly punished for acting out. The little girl, I believe, was by then starting to unconsciously splitting in half. But if it was then that it had indeed started, it still wasn’t then that it was consummated. The mother moved away for her oldest daughter’s education and took the little girl with her, meaning she would now only have to spend the holidays over with her father.” Rajani took a breather as you couldn’t help but remember the moments she was recalling. 

You had often wondered if that had been somehow related to what came to happen later on. You had felt like you had ropes tied to each of your wrists and they were being pulled in opposite directions. You had loved to be in your father’s house and often hadn’t understood why everything was so much worse at your mother’s house. You still loved your mother, though. You hadn’t known you were being brainwashed. Rajani returned to her story telling.

“Moving away was hard. The little girl had all her friends there, she even had an unresolved crush there. But an eight year old was far too old for throwing a tantrum. It was around that time that she also learned why her father was acting the way he had been. He was brainwashing her to hate her mother, unconcerned with what that would do to her social life as she wasn’t being taught properly. All that neglect he had imposed on her for the sake of revenge against his ex-wife ruined her. She entered school but because she was so used to being respected she immediately clashed against another little girl. A little girl with a twin brother who ruled the class’s boys. That other little girl was also used to having everyone around at her beck and call. And she didn’t like the newest addition. Not at all. She made it so that everyone in the class ostracized her. The little girl, with most of her social capabilities already trashed by her father’s selfishness became even more of an outcast with no social competence. So she did what she still had left as a quality. She tried to be a good girl for her mother.” Rajani shifted a bit to a more comfortable position. She had her eyes closed so she would immerse further into the story and away from the people before her.

Many people would have thought she was offering too much information but you both, and most especially her, had decided there was no need to keep that as private. What could it possibly do to affect them, after all? They were hardened against any hurtful comment about their past situation regarding their parents or the bullying.

“The little girl was lonely. As a single parent her mother was constantly working to make ends meet and had no time to play with little girls. As a college student in a competitive area her big sister was constantly studying to get the best grades possible and had no time to play with little girls either. She was so lonesome but considering her school mates were awful she began to enjoy the solitude. It wasn’t like she had any other choice, after all. And she did want to be a good girl. But at times the loneliness was so much she would do anything not to be lonely. Her class was… never mind, that is a detail for another time. All that matters is that they humiliated her whenever the loneliness got too smothering for her and broke down her self-confidence. She lost her childhood innocence then. Then she changed schools when she entered fifth grade and she learned that having your presence be ignored was a blessing compared to what came next. She would never find out for sure why she was singled out back then and all the following years, but she was. Mostly the girls went on ignoring her existence. According to her mother it was because they were jealous of all the attention the boys were showering on her. But the attention she did get from the boys was the kind she could have done perfectly without.”

“What did they do?” Undyne interrupted, rage in her voice. Rajani faltered, not expecting the interruption but swiftly returned to her tale.

“She had been pretty by an eleven year-old’s standards but because of her imposed solitude she had been far more mature than her age group. Many of the things the other girls consented to play with the boys were either too childish or too overtly sexualized, since they were, after all, starting to become aware of sexuality. But this was a new school and she was done with having her self-confidence smashed by others. She gathered whatever bits of pride she did have left and refused to go along with any of it. The boys didn’t like that. How dare she, the new girl in class, refuse to let them touch her? Sure they only wanted to touch her butt carelessly but she was DONE. And because she didn’t let them they began to treat her badly. They were so very mean to her. She was already lonely when she started school that year, but now she began to feel something else. She began to feel a deep hatred. At first it had been focused on the boys alone but later she realized that the girls and the teachers were **allowing** it to happen. Her hatred grew as each year passed by and nothing changed. It grew so big she wished they would all die. None of them deserved to live. But…”

Rajani opened her eyes and looked at all those around her. They had heard her voice grown with hatred and anger as she reached the murderous climax of the story and some looked at them with horror. You felt Rajani’s feelings shifting slightly. _**Just as I thought. The moment we become potential serial killers they all fear us or hate us or judge us.**_ She thought and you shrunk, wishing Rajani hadn’t told them about the feelings you had held then. Back then you were still one and even if those feelings were more of what Rajani would have felt, by then they were still shared so that was as much your fault has hers.

“But…?” Flowey asked. There was an odd expression in his eyes. You could almost think of it as recognition, but that was stupid… right?

“But even then she still wanted to be a good girl.” Rajani went on. “She was broken and tired of everything but she still wanted to be the very best she could for the sake of her mother. And she knew it was unfair to the few people she knew that were good to her to generalize all humanity in a ball of hatred. The feelings of wanting to be good and of wanting to wish death upon all those around her that mocked and humiliated her clashed stronger and stronger by the day. And then her feelings clashed so hard and became so self-aware that she split into two. At first the two that had been one were confused. Each wanted to control their body’s actions. It was natural. Before they had been one and hadn’t needed to share. But now they were two and had opposing views on life. One, we shall call her Mir, wanted to be a good girl. She felt that it was the only good thing she could still do and clung to it desperately. She was also far too nice and refused to think about wishing death upon others. In all her life she came to only truly hate two people. She hadn’t in her to feel such dark emotion flippantly. One could hurt her a lot and she could still find it in her to forgive them. As she would put it ‘There is no true goodness in this world. Likewise there is no true evil. All of us are a mix of those two. Sure some have more of one than the other but there’s always a small chance of redemption.’ She is truly the only good person through and through I ever met.” 

You felt yourself blush at Rajani’s compliment. Before you could react Rajani continued her tale.

“The other, let’s name her Raj, was filled with hatred and injustice. She felt she had been wronged. She hadn’t minded the butt touching so much as she had how the choice had been taken from her by others. And she couldn’t stand how those around her that had the power to stop it didn’t do anything. They had eyes and ears. They could see and hear what was happening. She knew at some point her unwillingness to conform had stopped being the cause for her bullying. They had began to bully her because she was an easy target. She was already a target so why not continue being mean to her. And she hated all of them for it. She wanted them all **d e a d b y h e r h a n d s .** ” Rajani growled the last words. Then she collected herself and went on like nothing had happened. 

“The two clashed for several months but Mir was understanding and she understood why Raj felt that way. She and Raj had been one up until then, after all, so she had more insight than the average Jane Doe. With time and patience, she slowly helped Raj see that the world wasn’t so black and white, and that there were several shades of grey in between. Then she slowly showed her there were more colors out there. They became friends. Then they became mind sisters. Mir showed Raj that there were still people capable of good and though I’ll never admit it again after this, the biggest evidence for Raj had been Mir herself. Raj decided that Mir should have reign over their body and to only show up when she needed her. Raj still distrusted everyone around her after all. Still do. Several other things of much greater impact would later happen to the two. Things that we wish to remain private. I always had her back whenever she needed me and, surprisingly she has mine too. I wish she wouldn’t risk her life so much, though. Well, technically she doesn’t have one anyway from what I saw of her HP.”

You were thankful she had omitted some of the things that had happened though she had always been more upfront about what had been done to them back then. 

But you had never been this upfront with anyone. Leave it to Raj to bare her metaphorical breasts of their soul. Man you’ll never get tired of this Lovely Complex reference. You were relieved she didn’t share what happened afterwards either. It had little relevance to your split and you didn’t want to think of it for one single second.

You suddenly realized no one was saying anything. They all seemed flabbergasted at your life story. Rajani decided to intervene.

“Look, I get it. It’s odd to meet with someone that has two different people living inside but get used to it, ok? I won’t even be out unless Miranda really needs me so no worries about that. She just didn’t have the guts to tell this story so I did it for her. And please do answer our questions. It’s the first time we actually had pseudo-physical evidence that I’m just as real as she, for fu-” _Raj…_ “-DGE’s sake!”

“so you mean to tell me that the soul anomalies i’m seeing are because there are two different personalities stuck inside the same soul? _color_ me surprised. ” Sans said at last.

“INDEED! I NEVER HEARD OF SUCH BEFO… SANS… WAS THAT A PUN?!" Papyrus proceeded to loudly groan in frustration.

“sorry bro, but she seemed a little _blue_ so i wanted to cheer her up. ”

“SANS!”

“c’mon! you’re not going to tell me that someone as _gray_ -t as you won’t put up with a few of my jokes for someone else’s sake.”

“SANS! SHE ISN’T EVEN LAUGHING SO STOP! NO MORE PUNS!”

“you are smiling, though.”

“I AM AND I HATE IT!”

“ …that’s it?” Rajani asked.

“what’s ‘it’?”

“I just reveal Miranda suffers from a condition that most psychologists still argue about whether it’s a legitimate thing or not and your first reaction is telling puns!?” She asked matter-of-factly. “Ya know what? Scr-” _I’m looking at you._ “-AMBLE this! Forget that we just literally proved that Miranda isn’t insane and that my whole existence isn’t a lie! Let’s talk about everything else that we don’t know like what gray means, why Miranda has no HP and I have all of it, what happened with our soul that it turned completely gray and why do we have such an absurd amount of HP!”

“calm down, you are working yourself _down to the bone_ , there.”

“UUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRGHHHH! THAT’S IT! Miranda, you deal with this! I’m out.” Rajani turned towards Sans and flipped him the bird. “FUCK YOU!”

And with that she was gone and Miranda stood in her place.

“RAJANI! THERE ARE KIDS HERE. NO SWEar… Um… yellow?”

Sans burst laughing at your color pun. It was twice as funny because it could also stand for a pun about yelling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah i sort of mixed mine and my friends past in here. we met when we were thirteen and bonded over the fact that we had similar pasts (broken families with a toxic dynamic) I mainly used Mir's (my friend) family background for MiRaj's (how I refer to the character in the story) story. We were also being bullied. 
> 
> The moving away and finishing the eighth and nine grade was, once again, Mir's past because my account from back then was awful. 
> 
> The sexualized bullying was all me. it wasn't as bad as the previous years but it was enough to piss me off, especially when i was held down so they could shove a finger up my ass similar to that Kakashi technique in Naruto. Lets just say I was pretty violent after that. It was me against all of the boys in class so I couldn't do much damage, especially since I didn't have any training in martial arts.
> 
> Having the girls ignore her while the guys used crass remarks and rude pick up line (when they weren't insulting us like saying that because we had brown hair we had shit colored hair and that light brown eyes were the color of rotten honey (joke's on you douche bags, honey doesn't rot, it crystallizes but it's still edible)) was both of us since we were already friends by then.
> 
> 'Daniel' did have multiple personality disorder (he had three people inside instead of the two in this fic) and he used to date Mir but now a days I can't help but think he might have lied about that too (he did lie to her about many things).
> 
> As for souls look at my profile pic, see the two layers in the broken soul, that's basically how souls look except that monster souls are upside down and aren't transparent (imagine the colored core shining through the white outer-shell like light through milk).
> 
> with this over next chap we get into more soul stuff and Miranda has a bonding moment with Asgore (I want to make her slowly befriend everyone before jumping to the romance to stay as realistic as possible).


	13. Chapter 12: In Which the Author Doesn’t Have a Good Name For a Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get explained on how HP works and share tea with the king under the starlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a request for you in the end notes. aside from that, I'm sorry if this is a bit short.

> -Selfless: 
> 
> From the word ‘self’ (1. one’s own body and personality, 2. one’s own personal interests or advantage) and the suffix –less (used to form adjectives meaning “without (the thing mentioned)”.
> 
> Having or showing great concern for other people and little or no concern for oneself; unselfish.-

.

You read as you heard Sans and Alphys discussing your gray soul trait. Selflessness. That was what Alphys had read on your soul.

They all had asked plenty of questions about your condition that you replied to the best of your capacity considering you weren’t exactly a psychologist. Heck even psychologists were too busy arguing whether your condition was real or not to fully explain what was happening. No one really knew how the brain worked on a deeper level that could justify having two personalities. Perhaps the issue had never been the brain but the soul.

In the end you told them to research on psychology books though you doubted they would be of much help. Most of them seemed to accept your explanation quite fast and you even had Papyrus compliment you. ‘YOUR SOUL MUST TRULY BE GREAT TO FIT TWO PEOPLE IN THERE’ he had said. You wondered about that. Sans was smiling and punning but you were beginning to suspect he was a lot like Ren from Skip Beat. The brighter the smile, the darker the thoughts. Simply put he didn’t believe you but indulged the others in their belief. Or worse, maybe he did and that was exactly his problem with you.

With that tidbit out of the way Alphys had immediately asked about your soul trait hence why you had searched the definition of the word in the dictionary in hopes it would shed some light on the subject. You… supposed you did sometimes put others before you but you weren’t sure that it was something that defined you as you. Mean while Alphys and Sans continued to theorize. 

You listened as they tossed theories about like confetti in a party. Mettaton had to leave because of his beauty sleep and Toriel had made the kids go to sleep. Papyrus had also gone to sleep and Undyne had fallen asleep midway through the theorizing, still sitting on the couch. Asgore was the only one besides you still listening.

“Hey, guys…” You interrupt them. “Can you tell me about my HP?”

You figured that so long as all there was to the issue of selflessness was theories, then it wasn’t such a pressing issue compared to other questions you wanted answered. They stopped to look at you curiously and you elaborated.

“Do you know… why I have so much of it? It is… far too much… right?” You ask uneasily. “Well… Rajani has, anyway. When it split I had none, right? It makes no sense since I’m the main personality, right?”

Both pondered on the issue.

“to be honest we monsters never had that sort of issues before. i’m kinda _split_ on which theory to go with. ” Sans said and you facepalmed.

“Please stop the puns. I am actually really worried here. Don’t do such a half assed attempt, Mr. I-know-science!” You said and then raised a brow at his chuckling before you realized you had just accidentally punned. Again! When did you begin making so many puns!?

He realized you hadn’t meant to say a pun and laughed even more as you performed a facepalm combo x2. You guessed if it was the other way around you’d find it funny too. It’s not every day you meet someone that makes so many puns without meaning to.

Alphys ignored the skeleton and finally revealed you some insight on how HP worked.

“Well, l-like I said before, HP stands for Hit P-points and an adult human usually has b-between 300 and 500. You have at least four times that. There are monsters with even more HP than that, though it’s not a regular occurrence either. There are some ways that can make your original HP go up: gaining LV and EXP; intensive training; improved life style; and psychological traumas.” You could tell that as she explained Alphys became more confident in her words and stuttered less. “Now when it comes to gaining HP via LV and EXP you would need a great number of kills which, obviously, you don’t have enough of. It isn’t also a very healthy way to go about it since it leads to psychological complications and major personality changes later on. When it comes to intensive training Undyne would know better. From what I have observed it deals with both physical and magical training but I haven’t had the chance to study it in humans to see how it would affect your HP, especially considering humans don’t have magic to train and would rely solely on physical training. Onto the improved life style. It is only observed in people who lived in poor conditions, suffering malnutrition, dehydration, among others. Usually what happens is that those sort of conditions lower the original HP in adult monsters and stunts the HP increase in youths so when the living conditions change to healthier ones the HP will return to its original value, or grow to its intended value in case of adults that grew up in such living conditions as children. As for psychological trauma, it is extremely rare for it to cause HP increase. Not unheard of. Just rare. Usually psychological trauma causes the opposite effect and it’s not unusual for victims of traumatic events to display abnormally low HP levels. In some cases, however, the subject may instead increase their HP as a defense mechanism against that very same side effect. But like I said, it’s extremely rare and so far only 2 cases have been written down. There may be the case of some special condition causing it that has remained unknown so far only because soul related technology has been known only to monsterkind and thus, if it is a human only issue, it has remained undiscovered up until now.”

That was a lot of information but you think you got the gist of it and knew for sure most of them didn’t fit. Still it was nice to at least know something compared to nothing at all.

“And what about having my HP being 0 despite me being the main personality?” You ask.

“I wouldn’t know. It is the first time I have met someone with more than one personality in the same body and I couldn’t begin to phantom how the whole thing works. It’s probably a case of wait and see.”

“I understand. And the whole turning gray thing?”

“Well that’s simple actually. The sort of color change you experienced just then had nothing to do with a personality change. Instead its more magic based.”

“What!? I have magic?”

“Technically everyone with a soul has. A soul’s physical form is entirely made of magic. In the monsters case that magic manifests outside of the soul and is strong enough to not only to be one of the main components of our bodies but also manifest outside of them. When it comes to humans, however, since their bodies are entirely made of matter, magic isn’t necessary to maintain it thus it is mostly focused on the soul. Rarely some humans had an excess of that magic and could learn to control it. Those were mages. But I read somewhere that some time ago every magical human was killed and even if some of them had survived your natural evolution would have deemed magic unnecessary and it was only a matter of time before humans lost it all together.”

“So what you mean is that I’m not a mage and that souls are naturally magical, am I right?”

“Yes.”

“And the turning gray issue? Where does that fit in?”

“think of it this way.” Sans interrupted. “if you saw undyne about to punch your face what would you do?”

“Raise my arms to block it?”

“souls are the same. they use their own magic to protect themselves in whatever way that makes sense to their particular trait and personality. you are the gray side of your soul so when you ***act** ed your side protected your whole soul by turning it gray. It either made it impenetrable to any magical attack or it attracted whatever damage to your side alone and, since you have no HP, no damage was done.” 

“Oh! Does that mean Rajani has a latent ability different from mine?”

“most likely.”

“I wonder what it is…” You ponder. “Thanks, by the way.”

“Y-you’re welcome.” Alphys replied meekly.

What followed were more theories, coupled with the typical pleasantries before each went to their own bed. Theories served you no purpose and you still had no clue as to why you had too much HP as a whole while having none as a separate being from Rajani. Why were you still alive if you had no HP? Shouldn’t you be dead? 

You could tell that Rajani felt relieved that so long as she had HP you would stay alive. You, however, weren’t sure how to feel. Did that mean that whenever you lost HP the only one getting hurt was Rajani? Had you been hurting your soul sister all this time whenever you got hurt? You lay in bed pondering on that as she reassured you you hadn’t hurt her.

You still felt sick to your stomach just thinking about it. Even if Rajani didn’t blame you, you did. You wonder if they had noticed. You did announce that you had to go to sleep rather abruptly. But then again they had seemed too into their conversation that you doubted anyone had paid heed to your odd behavior.

Instead of sleeping you waited until everything was quiet. You regretted not asking Dan to stop by your storage unit to get your laptop so you could spend your insomnia doing something productive. You decided to mentally outline some relevant plot points in your story and the best way to work them. You felt Rajani fall asleep not long after you began.

Eventually you heard the others climb up the stairs to go to sleep and waited some extra minutes after all sounds of movement ceased before getting up. Once on the ground floor you exited the mansion by the kitchen door and sat in one of the garden’s chairs. Looking up you saw something you hadn’t seen in almost three years. 

You saw the starry sky.

Having no light pollution around provided you with a great view. You regretted having to go to work the next day. It meant you couldn’t spend much time watching the sky. You just hoped you could fall asleep when you returned to your bed later.

“Can’t sleep, young one?” A deep voice asked and you saw Asgore coming out of the kitchen door with two mugs.

“Oh! Did I wake you? I’m sorry!” You immediately said.

“Worry not, young one! I was having trouble sleeping too.”

“Was it because of all the freakiness my soul contains?” You ask a bit worriedly.

“No, child. I’m afraid that is worrying you more than anyone else in this household.”

“Would I be nosy by asking what is worrying you?”

“No.” You gave him a look that dared him to lie again. “Well, yes. But I don’t mind.”

“I do.” You said lamely. “If I had been asked to tell what’s bothering me I would have said no right away. But then again I guess I am a lesser person than you.”

“You do not have to worry about my status as king, young one.”

“That’s not what I meant.” You quickly reassure him. “I could be hurting…”

You let the rest of the sentence fall into silence as Asgore quietly sat by your side. He handed you one of the mugs. It was warm in your hands. You reward him with a thankful look before taking a sip. You don’t know what kind of herb that tea had in it but it’s tasty and you can taste the honey he used to sweeten it.

“This is a beautiful night.” He commented, looking at the round moon high above and you droned in agreement.

You realized he didn’t intend to press you for answers and you were thankful for that but you needed to talk to someone about your worries. Someone that wasn’t Rajani. You knew what Rajani would say to them. She would tell you that she was fine and you had nothing to worry about. But you knew that wasn’t true.

“I have no HP and Rajani has. That means that every time we lose HP she’s the only one really getting hurt. I have been hurting her and I didn’t even know it.” You said at last. “And I…? I’m nothing more than a parasite!”

Asgore flinched at your obvious self-disgust and then put a furry hand on your back.

“It’s alright, young one. You didn’t know. You didn’t do it on purpose.”

“It’s not alright! I…” Some time ago you had. 

“The past can’t be changed, Miranda. Getting mad at it will do you no good now. But you can make sure nothing more happens.” Asgore said.

His use of your name instead of calling you ‘young one’ helped anchoring you to the present instead of the big mess that was your mind. You forced yourself to calm down. He was right. Getting mad at your past self for her selfishness would do you no good. Especially when you couldn’t argue with her like Karkat could. It didn’t make you ok with your past actions but it helped a little. You would make sure nothing happened again. You would protect Rajani with all your might. She had already protected you so much. Now it was your turn!

“Thank you, Asgore. I don’t know how you can be so kind to me.”

“How could I not be. You have done nothing so far to deserve any other treatment. Quite the opposite. Not only have you saved me and my family but you also saved an innocent child at great personal cost.”

“I-I didn’t do m-much. I j-just did what I thought I should! It was n-nothing.” You say, blushing.

“It was everything for Monster Kid.”

You can say no more out of embarrassment and shyness. You really weren’t used to compliments. And then you remember how everyone had reacted to your EXP.

“But the fact that I killed someone still scares you.” You said in a deadpan tone, looking at the steam ascending from your mug.

The enormous monster sighed.

“I would be lying if I said that I’m not concerned but I know that sometimes you do what you must do to survive.”

“And if it wasn’t a matter of survival?” You ask.

“I think your actions still speak louder than your EXP. And I’m not in the right to judge without knowing exactly what happened. I have done my own share of regrettable decisions in the past, after all.”

“If you say so…” You decide to let go of the subject. A part of you doubts his words. You simply couldn’t imagine the kindly king doing anything bad. But asking him would lead him to ask for reciprocation.

It still unnerved you that he wasn’t pressing you for an answer and you felt compelled to just tell him as a thank you for understanding your need to not say anything. It was sort of the opposite of congruent but you had always been that way. You were weaker to having people respect your needs than to them demanding answers from you. And since most of the time people had the tendency to demand, your mother had always claimed you as stubborn.

You looked at the sky again.

“I missed the stars.” You commented, voice filled with wonder.

“How so?”

“Can’t see them in the city with all the city lights. And the place where I slept at has such a narrow view of the sky that most nights I couldn’t even see the moon.” You commented starting to feel a little drowsy. The tea had helped. So had not being alone with your brain and negativity.

“Undyne mentioned you living on the streets.” Asgore said snapping you momentarily out of your daze.

“Yeah. I do.” You said simply and he knew you wouldn’t elaborate on the subject.

“If you want you can stay here for as long as you need until you can afford a place of your own.” 

“I couldn’t…”

“Yes, you could, young one. So far you have shown yourself capable of great acts of bravery and kindness and seem to possess a strong sense of integrity and justice.”

“Perhaps the word you are looking for is selflessness?” You jokingly suggest, deviating the topic to less embarrassing ones.

“Indeed. Though I have never heard of such trait before a soul script is hardly ever wrong. That and we didn’t exactly have soul technology before the war between monsters and humans so we didn’t have an abundance of human subjects around.”

“Understandable.” You yawned. “Welp! I guess I’m finally sleepy. I have an early start tomorrow at my work. Thank you for the tea and the chat, Your Highness.”

“Please. Just Asgore is fine.”

“Ok. Goodnight, Just Asgore.” You giggled. You didn’t quite remember the name of the movie where you had heard a similar line but it had stuck with you. Asgore smiled a little at your antics and you couldn’t help but feel relieved you had, even if just a little, cheered up the king.

“Goodnight, young one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so the next few chapters I want to develop how Miranda gets along with everyone and slowly befriending the monsters before I jumpo into heavy past stuff and romance stuff. thing is, i never planned exactly on what to write. I already have written a chapter that has drawing with the kids and an anime night. (In the far future I also have an angsty scene at grillbys to happen after all this fluff).  
> suggestions are accepted
> 
> next chapter: everyone gets nicknames.


	14. Chapter 13: Draw Your Meme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You teeach keep how to draw manga/anime style and Rajani gives everyone a nickname

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is more about detailing how Mir is adapting to her new environment at the beginning and ended up evolving into this. I regret nothing. (really can this even be considered fluff? I don't think so? it's more filler, really.)  
> also see end notes for a pic of Miranda and Rajani with their soul. ^w^

Living in a house after such a long time living on the streets was odd. Having a warm fluffy bed with clean and warm covers, surprisingly, made it hard to fall asleep. After tossing and turning the first half of the night you gave up and laid on the floor with just the pillow, finally getting some shut eye.

Breakfast was another surprise to you. You were already used to waking up early to go for work so it didn’t bother you much to be awoken at 6am by an overly excited tall skeleton but you weren’t expecting it to be a family gathering when you entered the kitchen. Everyone was there, even the children. The only exception seemed to be Sans but Papyrus changed that fast enough. Sure, Sans looked like he was sleeping while sitting but he was still there.

You were surprised when Papyrus and Undyne both volunteered to take your dogs out for a walk in your place and, after making sure all the animals were fed, you got ready to leave for the bus station. You didn’t go alone, though. Frisk, Monster Kid and Flowey were going to school and had to take the bus too and Toriel took the chance to ask you to go with them to the bus stop since you were headed there anyway.

You found yourself in front of your workplace earlier than usual since you hadn’t needed to stop by some place for breakfast. Work went as usual. The animation studios you worked at didn’t usually get many big requests. Once in a blue moon some of the bigger production companies would ask for your help but mostly it was just local cartoon shows. You did have a busy summer that year, though.

Lunch time came but this time you decided not to go to McDonalds. You knew Sans worked at a McDonalds and you knew that there was only one in that town. Sure, now that the town had all the mediatic attention from the monster thing, they were planning on opening more there. But still only one so far. You hadn’t seen him as of yet and you didn’t want him to think you were stalking him or something and get angry. Especially after the way he threatened you.

Ok so maybe you were overthinking the situation and overreacting but by golly you were always a paranoid person, even more so now. Rajani simply mentally eyerolled at you. Sans still tried joking with you but you could tell it wasn’t genuine interest so you didn’t react to his antics. You weren’t quite sure what he wanted out of you so you preferred avoiding him. So, you went to Grillby’s instead. 

Grillby expressed his concerns at not seeing you in the alley the previous night but considering you had put away all your things neatly he knew you were fine. You told him what happened and that you were now living with royalty. The few customers he had seemed surprised to see him talking so much. You didn’t get to meet his daughter yet since she was still in school. You did talk to some dog monsters though. It was hard but you resisted petting them. Why did dog monsters have to be so darn cute!!!?

You reluctantly also told him about Rajani. You felt that since people who were less close to you knew, then he deserved to know as well. Aside from finding such a thing odd he didn’t doubt you or acted differently and for that you were grateful.

After Grillby refused your money yet again, and seemed upset when you wrote down the amount you owed him in a notebook, you left for work. 

You listened in to some of your coworkers’ conversations about the news and there was mention of a trial. With a start, you realized they were talking about MK’s trial. You hadn’t realized it would get any mediatic attention, let alone to the level your coworkers were discussing it. Fortunately, aside from mentioning a human eyewitness who would be under the care of monster authorities, the news hadn’t gotten much information about you.

You went back to the mansion feeling a bit on edge. You stopped on the way by a supermarket to buy some gnocchi for Papyrus to try. When you got to the mansion Frisk, Flowey and MK were doing their homework as Toriel prepped the ingredients for dinner. She was in the midst of marinating some chicken breasts cut into strips.

“Hello, M-… Toriel.” You still felt compelled to call her ‘Mrs.’ or ‘Miss’ whenever you saw her but you were trying to curb the habit on her request.

“Greetings, Miranda. How was work today?” She asked.

“Fine. Nothing much happened.” You hesitated but then resolutely said. “I bought some gnocchi and I was wondering if I could cook them for dinner as a side dish. Can I?”

“Of course, dear child. That was the pasta you mentioned to Papyrus, the one made with potatoes, is it not?” You nod. “I have to admit I am pretty curious about it myself. I’m sure Papyrus will appreciate your promptness in getting these for him.”

“Thank you. That marinated chicken is smelling pretty good. Is that… rosemary?”

You and Toriel chatted for a while about food. You hadn’t been able to cook for some time since the streets don’t exactly have anything to cook on unless you set fire to something. You told her about your personal recipe for chicken breasts in the oven where you wrapped them in tinfoil with some spices and lemon juice and let it cook for around half an hour. She hummed at your description and told you they could try it next time and proceeded to tell you about her snail pie.

You were still talking when the kids finished their homework and entered the kitchen in a quest for cookies and then asked you to draw something for them, curious about your capabilities. You obliged and drew them anime style just in time for Undyne to return with Papyrus from a training session and see it.

“That’s pretty good!” She commented and you blushed at the compliment.

“Thank you…”

“How long did it take you to draw this?”

You glance at your wristwatch.

“About a half an hour give or take.”

“NO WAY! How did you draw this in such a short time!?”

“Practice?” You said. “It’s not really done yet, though. This is just the base. I need toshade it and color it and…”

Your thoughts get interrupted by Frisk gesturing something. MK dutifully translates for you.

“They said its good just as it is. It doesn’t need colors. Dude, I gotta agree! That is pretty cool. Yo! Can you teach us?”

“Sure. If you want.”

Undyne and Papyrus decided to join in on the drawing lesson. To be honest all the 'social'ness of the situation was starting to be too much beyond what you were comfortable with but you didn’t want to just tell them that you needed a moment for yourself. That would be beyond rude.

_**I could scare them off for you if you want.**_ Rajani suggested.

_No!_

_**Your choice, then.** _

You really weren’t used to having so many people surrounding you and talking to you at once, especially after the last few years, but though it was slightly uncomfortable, it wasn’t unbearable. There was an expression that seemed to fit from the Fruits Basket manga. Something about it being like lukewarm water. Like it was too warm for comfort but at the same time… You forced yourself out of those thoughts to see what they had drawn. 

MK had drawn an anthropomorphic squiggle without arms. For someone that didn’t have arms you had to admit he did a good job. Frisk had drawn themselves holding hands with Toriel and Asgore. You could see they had tried to put a lot of detail on it but the figures were a bit out of proportion. Still, it wasn’t a bad effort on their part. Flowey… was a huge surprise. 

With him only having leaves for hand you hadn’t expected much better from MK but you were dead wrong. The kid had a gift! Sure, he had drawn a murderous giant plant-being with machinery attached fighting a tiny Frisk, but the attention to detail and the shading was top notch. The lines were clean and simple and there were close to none mistakes and the few that were there were pretty minor. He had obviously tried to correct the mistakes. It is practically instinctual to do that though you shouldn't because it drags the attentions towards it. The style fit perfectly to shonnen manga.

“This is pretty good!” You told him after a baffled silence. “Did you consider going to art classes?”

“OF COURSE ITS GOOD, you idiot!” He said angrily but his flower face was a deep crimson. “And why would I want to go to those lame art classes? They are for pansies!”

You smiled at his embarrassment.

“Oh, I get you. Buttercups shouldn’t be confused with pansies. Two different flowers, after all.” You said making Flowey scowl and Papyrus release a 'HUMAN, NOOO!!!'

“I didn’t know you could draw! Why didn’t you say anything, punk!?” Undyne said, interrupting Flowey’s angry retort.

“Because I don’t want to be roped into your stupid lame girly drawings of people being all kissy and stuff.” He retorted, too flustered to manage his typical snarky responses.

You took the chance to look at Undyne’s drawing, which she had kept from you so defensively that it made you suspicious. It was a drawing of an armor clad Undyne dipping an Alphys dressed in a princess gown on a romantic kiss in front of a dragon with a massive sword on its chest that was fading into dust and seemed uncannily like the one from the third season of RWBY, with a fairytale like castle in the background with a moon behind the tallest tower. The lines wavered a bit and the proportion was a bit off too but it wasn’t a bad effort all in all. Sure, not good enough for a manga but still not bad.

You couldn’t help but chuckle at the sweetness of the drawing and Undyne finally noticed you looking at it.

“HEY! DON’T LOOK!” She said, trying to grab it and you dodged fearing she would rip the paper in her hastiness.

“Why? It’s pretty cute and sweet! Alphys is going to love it for sure!”

“GIVE IT BACK!”

“Calm down first! And is this dragon the one from RWBY? When did you watch the series? Did you like it?” You commented but refrained from examining the drawing closer so as not to embarrass the fish monster in front of you.

She calmed down a degree and you handed her the paper, not letting Flowey, who was morbidly curious, see it.

“Yeah, I did. The action and weapons were pretty cool but I didn’t like the Grimm. Their portrayal was too close to monsterkind for comfort.”

“Really? How so?”

“They turned to dust when they died.”

“Wait! You turn to dust when you die!?”

“Yeah!”

“I had no idea. I hope I didn’t offend you with that show.”

“What!? NO! IT WAS PRETTY COOL!” She immediately said. “Besides! I know that the show was made before we came from the underground. They had no way of knowing about us. It was pretty dull in the beginning, I have to admit, but then the action picked up. And the last few episodes of the third season… Man, I can’t believe they 'off’ed both Penny and Pyrrha! It was bad enough when it happened with Penny but then they had to take Pyrrha too! Pyrrha was so cool!”

“I know, right? And Yang? She really put up with a lot of crap that season.”

“That’s right.”

“I HAVE FINISHED MY DRAWING, SKINNY HUMAN!” Your talk got interrupted by Papyrus.

You noticed for the first time how oddly quiet Papyrus had been up until then. Apparently, he had been so focused on his own drawing he hadn’t even noticed your comments on the others’ works. He had drawn himself wielding a giant plate of spaghetti over his head that had sparkles all over it. Papyrus had actually used smudges to make the background darker and make the spaghetti plate seem to glow. The proportions were off and the lines weren’t smooth, though, which was a shame. You told him that and he didn’t seem not one bit discouraged. In fact, he seemed even more determined to get it right the next time.

“THANK YOU, SKINNY HUMAN. I’LL BE SURE TO DO BETTER NEXT TIME! OH, HI SANS! HOW WAS WORK?”

You startle and turn around to see Sans in the room. You hadn’t heard the door, how…?

“pretty busy. i had some trouble to _ketchup_ with everyone else. ”

“SANS!”

“fortunately i _mustard_ up the energy to do it. ”

“SANS, STOP RUINING MY AFTERNOON WITH YOUR INSUFFERABLE PUNS!!!”

“are my puns too _cheesy_ for your _taste_? ” 

“SANS! NO!!!”

“ _lettuce_ talk about something else, then. ”

“NYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!” And Papyrus jumped out of the window much to your surprise. Undyne sighed and went into the kitchen, probably to tell Toriel about it.

“Great! Now we have to replace another one! Nice played, smiley trashbag!” Flowey grumbled. Apparently, window smashing was a common occurrence.

“you’re welcome.”

“Smiley… trashbag…?” You asked and then burst laughing. Rajani then commented outloud. “That’s a pretty inventive one, Flytrap! I love it!”

“Flytrap!?” Flowey said offended as Frisk and MK giggled.

“Hell yeah! It’s a carnivorous plant and has those teeth thingies. Pretty badass if I do say so myself. It suits ya to boot!”

“Oh!” Flowey said blushing a bit. “Well… OF COURSE I KNEW THAT, you idiot!”

“i just call’im weed. smaller word. rolls of the tongue.” Sans commented. That was a bit mean to refer to a kid. Sure, a naughty kid but still…

“Hmm… I should find my own nickname for you too.” Rajani pondered, feeling the need to defend the flower boy.

“go ahead.” Sans commented completely unconcerned as he laid on the couch.

“Hey! How about Cueball!” Rajani said and Sans sputtered.

“What’s a cueball?” MK asked.

“Well it’s a specific ball used in cue sports such as billiard, pool and snooker. It is also slang for a white bald man. Sans’ bones are white and he’s bald so I figured it fit.” You wouldn't tell them it also reminded you of Doc Scratch, a character you didn't particularly like.

The kids laughed at Rajani’s description but Sans looked less than amused, though he made no comment.

“Dude! What about me?” MK asked. Frisk also waved their arms frantically.

Rajani pondered for a moment. You thought of how many times MK fell and got up again.

“For you, MK, I would call you Daruma. It’s a type of Japanese doll that symbolizes good luck and perseverance. No matter how many times you throw it down it’ll always stand up again, just like you.”

“Cool!”

“As for you, Frisk…” Rajani pondered some more and then grinned mischievously. “Rick Roll, cause you never gonna give me up, never gonna let me down, never gonna turn around and desert me. “She sang and all but Flowey laughed. Even Sans burst a loud ‘hah’. Apparently they had found out about internet memes and trolling on those months above ground, even with all the human shenanigans they had to deal with.

Once they calmed down, Frisk made two thumbs up while giggling. 

“You do know I was just kidding, right?” Rajani said and Frisk signed something. You were starting to understand some of the gestures but still not enough to understand a simple sentence.

“Leave the kidding for the kids!” MK translated and Rajani chuckled. “What’s a… meem?” Ok so maybe they hadn’t heard of the term just yet but they clearly knew the concept very vaguely.

“Just an internet thing.” Rajani commented carelessly but Frisk went on a deep discussion about what a meme was. Once enlightened MK turned to you again.

“Hey, dude, you should totally give everyone a nickname!” Frisk nodded along vigorously.

“I dunno, guys!”

“Please.” Oh, those puppy dog eyes.

“Fine.” Rajani said resignedly.

You knew she had only come out for the sake of insulting the ‘cueball’ but you knew she enjoyed coming up with odd names for people.

“Who’s first?” She asked.

“Undyne!” MK shouted as Frisk signed something. “No, Undyne first. Dude, she’s the coolest!”

“Since I don’t know what Frisk is signing I’ll do Undyne first, but Frisk gets dibbs on the next one, ok?” You said in place of Rajani who just stared amusedly at their antics.

Frisk nodded resignedly and gave you the go ahead.

“Hmm. Vriska!” Rajani said almost immediately and everyone around sported a questioning look. “It’s a character. She’s badass, has an eyepatch and is sort of impulsive. Not everything fits, though. Vriska has a skewed moral sense. And is spider themed instead of fish themed, but the fish themed people in Homestuck… yeah let’s not go there.” Rajani took out your phone and searched for an online image of Vriska to show him. MK seemed to love the character design.

“Cool. I gotta see that Homestuck thing.”

“Well, it’s considered the Epic of the Interned. It’s long and it’s sort of a challenge trying to read it all, while understanding the story completely, in the shortest time possible. And if you don’t like reading, there’s a group on Youtube who dubbed it. I’ll show ya later.”

Frisk waved their hands frantically to beckon you. 

“Yes, mah dude?”

They proceeded to point to Papyrus drawing.

“Oh, you want Papyrus next?” They nodded. “Hmm… Someone innocent and cheerful… Heroic too… also pasta! Pasta is important! Hmm… If he was female I would call him Ruby, but…” Rajani pondered some more. “Man, this is hard! Papyrus is just too unique! There is no one quite like him. I guess I’ll call him Ravioli ‘cause he likes pasta and his presence is quite _filling_.” Cue the finger guns.

“heh! nice one!” Sans said, which surprised Rajani since she didn’t expect a compliment from him as he was the only one who knew for sure who he was talking to. In fact his compliment only made you more suspicious but it seemed this time it was the truth. There was no calculating gleam in his eyes.

“Thanks, Cueball!” She replied nonchalantly.

“you’re welcome, slasher!”

“Slasher?” Rajani asked curiously.

“well, you do look like a serial killer from a slasher-type horror movie when fighting.”

“Wow, thanks! I try!” Rajani retorted as if she had just been given a genuine compliment… which, in a way, she had. Her reaction seemed to have surprised the skeleton. Had he been expecting her to be offended? That’s hilarious! “What about Mir? What would you call her?” She said in a whisper, closing in on him and making him feel very uncomfortable. None of the kids heard the exchange, too busy discussing among themselves.

“er…”

“Dude, do Toriel next!” MK interrupted much to Sans relief.

“Cottonpie” Rajani said almost immediately. “ ‘Cause she’s white and fluffy like cotton and bakes pie. Also it’s sort of a very bad play on the word ‘cutiepie’.”

Rajani proceeded to name Asgore as King Fluff, Alphys as Nepeta and Mettaton as Fancy Terminator. Sans had taken the chance to leave the room and gone somewhere but Undyne had returned and was disappointed that VriskaxNepeta wasn’t a thing after hearing all of the nicknames, but loved the Flytrap, Cueball and Fancy Terminator nicks, guffawing out loud at them. She was also disappointed that Homestuck wasn’t an anime because she wanted to watch the story. She was further disappointed when you told her the first few acts didn’t have much action in it but seemed to ponder when you told her about the challenge to read the whole thing. 

It was at that moment that Toriel called you to do you thing in the kitchen. Smiling widely you took over your body, pausing only long enough to wonder whether to call Papyrus or not before deciding that you would teach him how to cook only if he liked the dish.

“Hei there, Cottonpie!” Rajani hijacked your body momentarily to deliver that line as you entered the kitchen.

“Cotton pie?” Toriel asked looking very much surprised.

And as expected Rajani bolted away leaving you to deal with the aftermath. She sometimes did that as a prank. She loved getting you flustered.

“The kids wanted me to come up with nicknames for everyone and that one’s yours.” You said blushing profusely. “You know… cause your fur is white and soft like cotton and you make awesome pies… also a play on the word cutiepie.”

“Oh my!” She began laughing as a slight pink tint filled her cheeks. “Thank you for such a complimenting nickname, my child.”

Of course she had you repeat every nickname Rajani had come up with and commented them as she cooked with you. She was particularly interested in the memes, once you vaguely explained what they were, and you took the chance to show her Memecenter and 9gag on your phone, telling her of the sites’ eternal rivalry. You preferred Memecenter because you liked Vlade’s posts of Faith in humanity, Classic Burns, Idiots Online and Tmblr Stuff. She decided to check the site after dinner.

At dinner time, you and Toriel had fun calling everyone by their nicknames, much to the confusion of anyone that wasn’t in on the subject and fun for those who were. Papyrus seemed to like gnocchi but it was pretty obvious his first and only true love would always be spaghetti.

When you went to sleep that night you took a fluffy comforter to serve as mattress so you would adjust to sleeping in softer surfaces. This in no way meant you were taking Asgore up on his offer. Toriel needs her school, after all. And you were used to the streets anyway…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here is the drawing:
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> and here is my deviant art, where i put pics online (this one included) and if you like bitties you can see some of the ones I made (nope, no more skeletons, the internet has enought of those already and I wouldn't be able to do them justice XD): http://septragirl.deviantart.com/


	15. Chapter 14: Honesty is such a lonely word

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda get's delayed at her work place, goes to buy some snack for the anime night and get's pranked (sort of, since author is not the mischievous prankster type, but I promise I'll get better pranks in the future). A truce is declared and also Miranda get's a flashback of a realistic dream she had once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sup, it's the author here and I hope you enjoy the nicknames I wrote for the group chat ;)

Anime nights sure were an interesting event. They happened every Saturday night and two days after arriving to the Monster Compound you had experienced your first one... or part of it at least. Alphys selected her favorite anime since you had never seen it and asked you to pick one. You obviously chose Skip Beat. Frisk wanted to watch the anime you had mentioned before but you knew Toriel wouldn’t approve and told Frisk that maybe when she wasn’t home they could watch.

That Saturday you didn’t get to see Frisk’s final pick of anime to watch since you had work the following day. You also didn’t get to see everyone’s reaction to your pick either. That was the problem with not having a fixed schedule. You never had your breaks in the same day of the week. This Saturday would be different. Your day off was Sunday so you could stay awake for longer.

You weren’t exactly sure what to expect. All you knew was that last Sunday when you had gotten up for work the monsters and human were strewn across the living room in deep slumber, Asgore and Toriel being the exception. Asgore didn’t really participate in the Anime Night and Toriel wouldn’t usually stick around for all of it, preferring instead to go to bed early. You were even surprised to see Sans there, since he had been working late and by the time you had finished watching Mew Mew Kissy Cutie he hadn’t shown up yet.

You felt half uneasy and half excited. Uneasy because you hardly knew those people. Despite being there over a week, most of that time you were at work. Dinner and breakfast were the only times that everyone gathered around and interacted. And knowing them in casual conversation wasn’t the same as knowing them as friends. The small fraction of the Anime Night you had spent with them last Saturday had been more informative than any of those occasions. Anime did sometimes evoke deeper conversations about feelings, morality, and society depending on the anime. That made you nervous. You weren’t the most sociable of people in the first place, even before your life crumbled to dust. You were an introvert, preferring to quietly read a book. As you were now you severely lack the ability to be as social as normal person should be. You didn’t want them to think you were a freak too. 

Rajani, of course, didn’t care if she was considered a freak. She could be downright antisocial at times. She was uneasy too, but for a very different reason. Rajani had basically allowed you to befriend everyone if you wanted to but was now worried how that friendship might be used against you. Again.

You could understand her unease but, after being used by the two people you trusted most in such an awful way as you had been, you were pretty sure there was nothing these guys could toss at you that you couldn’t deal with.

With this in mind, you had decided to see if you could get off early from work to grab some snacks to contribute to the gathering. You hadn’t expected the session of brain storming that your team had gone through regarding a specific scene on a new series. Several sketches, enough to create a massive tome, later and you all had finally reached a consensus about how to go about the scene which included delaying the introduction of a new character and the screen writer would be working on the new scrips for the voice actors.

As soon as you come outside the studios you are surprised to see Dusk sitting there waiting for you. Before you had gone to the Monster Compound It wasn’t unusual to see her. In fact, it had been a thing of common occurrence. Moving to a place much farther away from your workplace than your alleyway had made those visits stop. It seemed it had just taken longer for your cat to figure out the way.

You praised her and gave her a treat for a job well done. With that done you took out your phone to inform every one of your delay only to see several missed calls. You couldn’t remember the last time you had that many lost calls. Probably never? Most of your friends used to text you at your request.

You didn’t like phone calls much. You always had trouble understanding what the person on the other side was saying. Then again you sometimes had trouble understanding what someone in front of you was saying. You had your ears checked and there was nothing wrong with them. You could only assume the problem was somewhere in your brain where the sound input received by your ears was translated into meaning.

You were snapped out of your thought processing when your cat rubbed against your calf. You realized you had been blankly staring at your phone screen for one minute. It wasn’t even lit anymore. Feeling like a moron for being so taken aback and wasting precious time you opened up the group chat that you had yet to use. The names you had given everyone always made you laugh and now wasn’t an exception.  
.

>   
>  _Message sent at 21:43_  
>  **Hi. Just got out of work. Was delayed by brainstorming for a series. Going to store to buy snacks.**
> 
> _FishyVriska sent a message at 21:45_  
>  **PUNK!!! You were starting to worry us! Why didn’t you pick up the phone!?**
> 
> _Message sent at 21:45_  
>  **Was at work. Phones must be turned off or on silence mode and away from us to avoid leaking spoilers.**
> 
> _FishyVriska sent message at 21:46_  
>  **Oh! Well. You know there’s no bus here at this time, don’t you?**  
> 

.  
No, you actually didn’t. That posed a problem, but it was easily manageable.  
.

>   
>  _Message sent at 21:48_  
>  **‘tis fine. I’ll walk. Just gona be a bit later. Don’t wait up. Left ‘Lovely Complex’ aside for you to see. Gona go grab snacks now. See ya.**  
> 

.  
That done, you started walking to the store with Dusk in tow. You had barely managed two steps before a notification rang up. A few more followed in its wake eventually forcing you to stop. You check your phone to see what it was and realize it was the group chat. You feel stupid from not knowing it was the chat. You thought it was more of those annoying spams of upgrades for phone games, which was why you usually had the phone with the silence mode on, though the sound wasn't the right one.

Of course you wouldn’t have recognized the chat notification sound! You hadn’t been using it at all. You opened up the app and checked the number of messages you had collected.  
.

>   
>  _FishyVriska sent a message at 21:49_  
>  **That doesn’t really sit well with me, punk.**
> 
> _CoolRavioli sent a message at 21:49_  
>  **I’V GOT TO AGREE WITH UNDYNE. IT IS RATHER DANGEROUS TO WALK AROUND AT THIS TIME OF NIGHT AND AT SOME POINT THE ROADS TO HERE ARE QUITE DESERTED AND WITH CLOSE TO NONE ILLUMINATION POSTS.**
> 
> _NepetaTheScientist sent a message at 21:50_  
>  **That’s right you could be attacked, especially considering that you are a witness to a crime.**
> 
> _FishyVriska sent a message at 21:50_  
>  **YEAH! Just wait a bit so we can find a solution.**
> 
> _FriskRoll sent a message at 21:55_  
>  **Mirandy, r u dere? U didn’t reply.**
> 
> _FishyVriska sent a message at 21:57_  
>  **HEY! PUNK! IS EVEYTHING ALRIGHT!!!???**
> 
> _CoolRavioli sent a message at 21:58_  
>  **SKINNY HUMAN!?**  
> 

.  
Jeez, you had worried them by being oblivious as heck.  
.

>   
>  _Message sent at 21:59_  
>  **Yep, still here. Sorry. Didn’t realize you were still messaging me. I’m fine. Besides, I have de best kind of escort a girl could hope for.**  
> 

.  
You took a picture of Dusk staring up at you and sent it in hopes of lighting the mood. It half worked.  
.

>   
>  _CoolRavioli sent a message at 22:00_  
>  **HOW DID YOUR CROOKED TAILED FELINE END UP ALL THE WAY THERE WITHOUT US NOTICING.**
> 
> _FriskRoll sent a message at 22:00_  
>  **DETERMINATION!**
> 
> _Message sent at 22:01_  
>  **She’s a cat. Cats are like the animal equivalent of ninjas XD**
> 
> _FishyVriska sent a message at 22:01_  
>  **That aside, where are you now?**
> 
> _Message sent at 22:01_  
>  **In front of the store.**
> 
> _FishyVriska sent a message at 22:02_  
>  **Which one!?**
> 
> _Message sent at 22:02_  
>  **The neons claim it’s called Sunbelt Foods. Gotta go now. Have to hide cat in jacket. Dun wanna leave her alone outside. Can’t check phone while cat is in jacket.**  
> 

.  
You wait a bit for more texts and when nothing else comes up you slip your smartphone into your front pocket and scoop your cat up. You hide her inside your jacket at the front and put your backpack on your front instead of in your back to further hide her. Also for easier access to your wallet. This wasn’t something new for Dusk, though perhaps uncomfortable, so she stayed put and you walked in grabbing one of the plastic baskets and the entrance.

You immediately go to the snack aisle and scan your options. You immediately gather a few skittles and chocolate bars. You were pretty sure Undyne had taken care of the popcorn and Alphys would find some Japanese snacks somewhere. You were also pretty sure Papyrus would be making spaghetti this time since last time he didn’t have the time. You also grabbed some peanuts, almonds and hazelnuts to pretend you were being a bit healthy.

You then saw a bag of Herr’s Ketchup Potato Chips. You had noticed Sans using an unholy amount of ketchup with everything. You still disliked him a bit but maybe you should show that you were willing to let bygones be bygones? You couldn’t deny he had tried to make amends. Not very hard, mind you, but he had at least tried. You guessed you wouldn’t have tried that hard for a stranger.

 _ **Fuck that. Did he actually ever apologize!?**_ Rajani interrupted your train of thought and you actually had to go back and try to remember if he had. You realize that, with everything that had happened, he never had actually apologized for threatening you. You didn’t blame him, though. You had been pretty distracted with the torrent of information that was dumped on you yourself. Heck, you had covertly started trying to draw your soul out on your own so that you and Raj could study it, so you hadn’t even remembered that particular detail until Rajani pointed it out.

_He didn’t, but it’s sort of understandable._

_**Nope! You are NOT gonna excuse him from apologizing. He should apologize for being a judgmental prick that threatened you!** _

_Well that may be true, but it doesn’t mean we need to stoop down to his level, right? We’re better than that._

_**Urgh! Fine! Buy the goddamn potatoes! Hope he chokes in them.** _

_Does he even have the physical aspect necessary for getting choked on food?_

_**Dunno. Hope he does, though.** _

You couldn’t help but feel amused at Raj’s bitter laced words. She didn’t actually wish for the skeleton to die but she was still very salty towards him.

You went to the register and payed the cashier. Fishing your backpack for your wallet had involved a very meticulous process that had three essential objectives. Retrieving your wallet, obviously. Not squishing your cat, that was a must. And not let the cashier notice you had a cat with you.

The cashier looked at you oddly but didn’t seem to notice Dusk, or, if he had, he hadn’t given a fuck about it. Still, you rush out of the store anyway. The air outside was cool, reminding you that summer was over as September turned to October. Usually your studio would have had a break during summer but your team had been commissioned to create a short, animated movie and your short vacay had been cut even shorter. Theyre were now planing to move the vacation time to another month but no final decisions so far. 

You hadn’t minded missing your vacations, though. Summer in the streets of Auburn were absolute hell. You could even fry eggs on the side walk. You would know. Those omelets sure had brightened your summer.

You had welcomed the blessed air conditioning and had even convinced the boss to let you bring your pets to work.

You got pulled out of your thoughts when a hand clasps your shoulder suddenly. You quickly, or as quickly as the backpack would allow, turn around, left hand ready to deal a karate chop to the neck of a potentially dangerous bloke.

Instead of a would-be attacker you met eyes with a jerk instead.

“hey, there’s already enough skeletons around. no need to _jump out of your skin_ and join us. ” Sans said. That was the silliest joke you had heard from him so far.

“JEGUS! You’re lucky it was me and not Raj you messed with.” You say sternly. Long gone was the time that you could afford to not react to people trying to startle you. In the streets, a second faster in reaction time could mean the difference between safe and… not so safe. “I actually look before I knock assholes down, she just reacts.”

He just shrugged your serious tone with a casual shrug. While it only annoyed you a bit that he was so dismissive, Rajani was absolutely seething. Honestly, as far as you were concerned, if he got hurt the next time he tried to pull one of those on you again it would be on him alone since you had warned him and thus he didn’t get to use ‘not knowing’ as an excuse.

“What are you doing here anyway?” You decide to ask as Dusk poked her head out of your jacket sensing that the coast was clear.

“Didn’t you read my message?”

“What message?”

“In the group chat.”

You pull out you phone from your pocket and open the app.  
.

>   
>  _VoldySansLeSnake sent a message at 22:04_  
>  **undyne wants me to pick you up. stay by the entrance.**  
> 

.  
You look back at him with the most unimpressed expression that ever crossed your face.

“Gee, no wonder you have to work at McDs.” You offhandedly comment, feeling Rajani’s irritation get to you. He had to have done this on purpose. He knew you couldn’t pick up your phone. That didn’t mean you couldn’t send a little subtle jab at his potentially perceived lack of intellect by not reading your message.

“what do you mean?”

“Never _mind_. I’m sure you’ll never get it.” You say shrugging and intentionally punning this time around. Perhaps Rajani was right about him. Now you also hope he chokes on the goddamn potatoes. If there was one thing that triggered some not so good memories about your ex-boyfriend was having someone purposefully ignore a message you wrote to them. Perhaps you were overreacting due to Rajani’s latent hatred towards the skeleton coming off in waves from her, but you couldn’t help it at the moment. “So, how did you get here so fast? You got a car or something?”

“nah. most monsters aren’t allowed to have licenses yet. only the royal family.”

“That doesn’t answer my first question.”

“took a shortcut.”

You force yourself to take a deep breath and expel Rajani’s emotions from your side of your mind onto hers to think more clearly. There was only a few reasons for him to be going at you like a dumb kid poking a grumpy hibernating bear. He wanted a reaction out of you. Any reaction would do. You had pushed him away when he tried to be nice and ignored him so now he was trying to anger you. That must be it for sure.

“You are being a prick on purpose, aren’t you?” You sigh as you feel Rajani pause at your conclusions before raging again at how even more stupid that was.

“don’t know what you’re talkin about.” He said. Man, his poker face was near perfect, but you noticed some sweat on his forehead. Not much, mind you, but still.

“Sans, let’s cut the crap ok. Fact is I dislike you and I'll admit it. I’m also not one to be swayed by fake demonstrations of comradery and know you don’t particularly seem to like me either so let’s just be honest here for a sec.” You say. You had said you would try to let bygones be bygones after all so you would make an effort at the very least.

He said nothing at that but the smile he had plastered on fell a little so you continued.

“I don’t know why you decided to threaten me when I had done nothing to you and I don’t like that. Something you have yet to apologize for, by the way. So, no. I don’t particularly feel like being all chummy pal pal with you. However, I’ll admit that you at least made an effort, even if it wasn’t very genuine. My question is, what do you really want from me? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure you don’t actually want me around.”

Sans seemed pretty surprised at you confronting him this directly. You were pretty sure no one called him out on his bullshit to his face before. He did have a heck of a poker face. You would know. You have one too.

You sighed again when you noticed he was too surprised to actually reply to you. Or maybe he was just letting you finish your rant. Who knew at that point.

“I don’t know what I could have possibly done to you to make you dislike me so much but… Let’s just agree on starting over. Let’s put whatever grudges and bad feelings we have aside like the grownups that we are and let’s both make an effort on getting along. Deal or no deal?” You say just wanting to get this over and done with. You hadn’t intended on getting this serious and actually giving him a lecture but maybe that was for the best. This way at least you were as clear as possible and any further complications that could happen due to misunderstandings wouldn’t be on you.

“wow, kid. I only meant to prank you a bit by showing up unexpectedly behind you. maybe startle you a bit. didn’t mean to _pick a bone_ with you. but, uh… sure. deal. ” He extends his hand to you for a handshake.

You scan his hand for a whoopi cushion. Frisk had told you about how he liked using them. Seeing none you finally clasp his hand only to feel the whole world around you twist and dissolve away into blackness. You scream but couldn’t even hear your own voice.

.

.

.

_You were falling in the darkness. You weren’t the only one falling, another vaguely human shape that glowed yellow was falling too and you were desperately trying to hold them. You didn’t know why but you felt that they were important._

_But you failed as they were falling faster than you. Someone glowing royal blue clasped your hand. Your hand didn’t look much like your hand, you noticed. It was still a hand, a generic one, but both you and the glowing royal blue someone were as vaguely shaped as the yellow someone that had fallen._

_**HOLD ON, MIRANDA!** Said Rajani’s voice. It came from the vaguely human shaped royal blue person holding you. Behind her was a tear in the blackness that glowed with light and she was leaning out from it._

_You held on. You felt grief for the yellow person even though you couldn’t understand why, but you held on. You don’t know where you are or why, but you are getting out!_

.

.

.

You snap out from the memory as your feet touch the ground and the world untwists around you. You become aware that you have a death grip on Sans’ hand and that your hand was becoming as white as his. You force yourself to let go and Rajani’s voice comes out of you, expelling some curses.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THAT!?” She finally asks the skeleton. 

“my short cut.” He said while rubbing his sore hand but still smirking.

You calm yourself down as Rajani looks around noticing you are now right outside the mansion. 

“you should see your surprised face.” Sans said to both you and Rajani. No doubt your soul must be jumping back and forth between glowing gray and grayish blue.

“You can teleport.” You finally managed to speak. “And, of all the things, you chose to use it to prank me?”

“i knew you were expectin’ the whoopi cushion after i heard frisk telling you. had to improvise.” He smiled and you knew there was no ill intent coming from him. It was just meant to be a playful gesture. “consider it payback for your little song.”

“Of all the things you could muster up to pay me back for, you chose me singing!? I thought you would be more pissed off at your nickname.”

“nah, that’s my payback to rajani.” He winked. How could he even…

“Ok, I’ll let it slide this time on account of your playful shenanigans but the next time you want to beam me up somewhere, you’d better warn me, Scotty.”

“scotty?”

“One day you’ll find out.” You didn't really feel like going into that show just yet.

You started going inside, putting your cat down, when he stopped you.

“oh and, uh… you’re right. i didn’t get to apologize so… i’m sorry.”

And that was his way of telling you he’d try, you realized, and somehow you found that stupidly foolish act kind of charmingly dorky. You smiled at him and grabbed the ketchup potatoes off your bag, tossing them at him.

“Thanks. I just don’t want us to go on with _chips on our shoulders_. We had to _ketchup_ with one another at some point, I guess.” You tell him and if he had eyeballs they would be bulging out of his sockets in surprise. He stared at the potato chips and then chuckled as you walked inside. 

\--Sans POV--

She had called him out on his fake friendliness. She had actually called him out on it. She was having none of it. Not even Frisk had called him out on his bullshit and, out of everyone, they were the one who knew how much of it he had. But instead of remaining bitter and angry about all of what had happened she’s given him a second chance.

He had wanted to dissipate what bad feelings had been between the two of you. Heck, Papyrus had noticed her tenseness around him and had been constantly insisting on him talking to her. And he had tried. He had really tried but she refused to react to him.

He had been starting to resign himself to the fact that he had antagonized her to the point of lasting through all her stay there. He had been close to giving up on making her dislike him a little less. She had really given zero reaction to anything he had thrown at her. But instead of it being due to anger it was because she saw the lack of genuine interest. That woman was something else.

He could be a little more genuine with her, he was sure. especially after this. He gazed at the potato chips amusedly. He still didn’t like having someone with EXP near his little brother but… Well, he let Frisk stick around didn’t he? The weed too. And she did go out of her way to save his brother too.

He opened the package and took out a chip… needs more ketchup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter comes anime night and some PTSD angst.


	16. Chapter 15: Do You Know Your Anime… Rah hey?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anime night goes swimmingly. Mir and Raj are still a bit off put by the teleportation shenanigan. PTSD nightmares in the middle of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title brought to you by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emO4rL_5yTs  
> (I love when they put the altered lyrics for you to sing along close to the end XD)
> 
> so this is level 1 angst, which is the weakest but don't lose hope all ye angst lovers cause these will be rough sailing ahead. btw what kind of angst do you like most, just curious to see if I can add some aside from what I already have (feel free to include some scenarios).
> 
> also for all those who don't mind soul related spoilers I created a 'three parts document' about the souls in my deviant art. In the beginning was just so I stayed true to how I wanted the souls to work so I'd have a guide of sorts but I got WAY too enthralled in it and not only does it include a few other SansXReader (or SansXOC) future fanfic Easter Eggs but it does have a lot of useful information on my interpretation of the undertale soul lore.  
>  on my deviantart you'll also find my bitties (if you're into bittybones AU stuff) but there wont be any skeletons there though (lets face it, there's already a lot of skeleton bitties (as well as grillby ones) out there and none about the other charactes, ESPECIALLY the main cast.
> 
> DeviantArt site - http://septragirl.deviantart.com/
> 
> aside from this, enjoy the chapter. ^w^

“THERE YOU ARE, punk! What took you guys so long!?” Was the first thing you heard from Undyne as you walked in.

“Shopping. Also, Sans wanted to play a prank on me.” You simply said. “Thanks for convincing him to pick me up, though. It saved me a lot of time.” You realize you also forgot to thank Sans for getting you, you had only thanked him for agreeing to the deal. Before you could turn around and correct your mistake Undyne took hold of you and dashed to the living room turned movie theatre.

They were all there waiting for you and waved their hands. Alphys was sitting in the couch wrapped in a fluffy blanket and clasping a big bowl of popcorn in her hands, the space beside her was obviously reserved for Undyne. They had two sleeping bags on the floor for them too, just like everyone else but it seemed that they preferred to cuddle a little first. Last week the couch had been Toriel’s and Frisk’s so you guessed it worked by shifts.

Papyrus was sitting on the floor leaning against Alphys’ legs holding Flowey and a plate of spaghetti that they were sharing. Frisk and MK were sitting on his left and there was space on his right for his brother. Your dogs were also there spread out wherever they could. Your cats, including Dusk, had decided to go to the rooms to avoid the confusion.

You decided to sit on the other side of the kids and took out your snacks from the bag to distribute them among everyone and immediately picked a bag of hazelnut and a bar of crunch for yourself. You started by your choice, Lovely Complex, but you had to explain to the less versed in Japanese culture about the stigma of the size differences. You told them how the norm for couples was for the girl to be short and cute and for the guy to be taller than the girl and more masculine, hence the main initial conflict of the pair. They did end up enjoying it and it granted them a few laughs.

They were a bit confused with the metric system used in the anime so you told them how you were 1,69m so that they had a reference. You ended up explaining them the metric system which was the one you grew up with and that you still somehow couldn’t do well with measuring things in inches and feet.

By the end of it Frisk insisted on watching Akatsuki no Yona, since Toriel was spending the weekend outside on business, so that was what you watched next, not to mention that the series that Alphys had chosen was apparently sixty or seventy episodes long, plus movies. She didn’t tell you what she had picked, though.

Akatsuki no Yona wasn’t as well received due to the heavy scenes. Undyne loved the heck out of Yona when she began fighting back, though. You felt Rajani wince when Yona was neck deep in depression after her father was murdered and she was chased out of her home. Last time she had seem someone with that expression… was a time neither of you wanted to remember. Just like you didn’t want to think about the flashback you had when Sans had teleported you. Well, it was more like what you had seen when you had woken up from that weird dream than the dream itself. At least you thought it was a dream, but it had felt so… real. No, it was definitely a dream. After all, you had been knocked out. So, a dream. A weird and psychedelic one, but one none the less.

You felt MK tense next to you as he watched Hak and Yona being chased around and falling down a cliff to escape so you patted his shoulder trying to offer some manner of comfort.

You had to explain some things that went on to be explained in the manga of the series to the monsters around you as they realized the sort of thankless situation all the characters were in and why Yona’s cousin had killed the king to take the throne. 

You were pleasantly surprised when Alphys revealed her choice of anime and happily butchered the lyrics to ‘Catch You Catch Me’, Sakura Card Captors’ opening theme. The only few songs you actually knew the lyrics to were Tomoyo’s song ‘Yoru no Uta’ which you happily sang and taught Alphys how to sing the Japanese lyrics, and the ending song of the first movie.

You never got to finish the series because it devolved into a karaoke contest of sorts. You showed them a few of the anime songs you liked most and from those you showed them the ones you actually knew the lyrics to. 

You found out that the anime Frisk had requested the week prior was Digimon Adventure when they insisted on singing ‘Brave Heart’. You were forbidden from singing the songs you knew the lyrics to, because they were at a clear disadvantage, so you sang ‘Blaze’ from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. You were only slightly surprised that Undyne had picked ‘Baka Song’ from Ranma ½. It was one of the more rage filled songs so it made sense you guess. But, considering how many times the word ‘idiot’ was said, you kind of thought Flowey would choose it. Alphys went for the Chobbits song ‘Let me be with you”. 

Not everyone got to sing, though. When Flowey started insulting Alphys’ singing Undyne got mad and tossed a pillow at him but it missed and hit Papyrus’ face instead. Next thing you knew several pillows were floating midair and bashing Undyne and the anime night devolved into pillow fight club. You quickly made a team with Frisk and MK and hid behind the television grabbing at any stray pillows you could get and tossing them at any targets when you were presented the chance.

Alphys and Undyne were another team and Flowey and Papyrus were another. Sans continued to lay there but all the pillows seemed to be avoiding him. Your dogs were absolutely going crazy and barking and jumping all over the place, sometimes even stealing pillows from the hand of one of the fighters.

You and the kids started gathering all the stray pillows you could until everyone else was out of ammo. Then you smiled at them the most mischievous smile you could muster and started firing pillows at them all. Soon you were down to three pillow and each of you took one for one-on-one combat and joined the fray. 

In the end, no one won. The battle ended when a weary looking Asgore came down the stairs to see what the commotion was about and took a pillow to the snout and you had made the mistake of commenting that the most giant pillow had just arrived. He immediately flopped down on as many of you as he could, all while laughing in his massive voice.

When he was done with you, he told you to go to sleep before moving back upstairs himself and you were all so drained from the fight that you agreed. Everyone got inside their own sleeping bag and Asgore turned off the lights.

“So, how was your first anime night?” Undyne asked in a whisper as soon as you heard the door to Asgore’s room close.

“Haven’t laughed this hard in a long time.” You admitted with all honesty.

“Good.”

Silence.

“How long is a long time? She asked suddenly and you sigh resignedly

“It’s going to be three years next November.” You answer honestly, the tiredness making you forget to be paranoid about your past.

“Is that how long you’ve been on the streets?” Alphys’s voice asks.

“Nope.” And then you realized you’ve told them more than you should have. “I’m tired. Goodnight.”

It was true, but you also knew that no matter how tired you were, sleep wouldn’t come easy. It never did.

_**That fuckin place in between Sans’ teleportation freaked me out.**_ Rajani said as soon as she sensed it was safe to talk. You invoked your typical mental landscape and sat beside her in a fluffy cloud.

_Me too. It reminded me of that dream we had after the blast knocked us out._

_**Bullshit! It didn’t just remind us of it! It felt just the same. That’s what’s creepy. That we dreamed something so real after the blast knocked us out.** _

_True. But let’s not overthink this._

_**I wasn’t. I’m just freaked out. From now on let’s avoid using this guy’s teleportation ok? I’m pretty sure we’re gonna have nightmares again tonight.** _

_I know. Goodnight, Raj._

_**… Goodnight, Mir.** _

You turned over in you sleeping bag and used your usual method of falling asleep, thinking of all your characters and stories.

 

***

 

_Rajani was pulling you out of the darkness and into the light. That’s all you remembered from your dream when you woke up. You felt your ears ringing like when a loud sound leaves you temporarily deaf. You didn’t understand what was wrong._

_You could feel something soft beneath you but it was far too irregular to be a bed and you felt water. All around you. On top of you. But you knew you weren’t in a beach either. The ringing was subsiding a little and you hear something other than it but you still couldn’t understand what it was._

_You opened your eyes but everything was so blurry. Rajani was with you but she seemed as confused as you were. You almost talked out loud with her but no one knew you had multiple personality so you couldn’t and the ringing and the blurriness had given you a headache making it harder for you to focus on inner dialogue._

_You saw dark blue lights like the ones in… Oh right! You had been in the Oceanarium hadn’t you? But why were you wet? What had happened? Did the glass break? No, that didn’t make sense. The water would have been higher then, wouldn’t it?_

_You scrubbed your eyes trying to see better. There seemed to be some purplish matter all around you, not near you, but further around. Your sister was the soft stuff underneath you, you realized. You weakly tried to sit up but your arms were trembling so much that you fell flat again._

_Now you could hear better. It sounded like… no…_

_You sit up again and look at the sea of red, turned purple under the blue lights, all around you as you hear people screaming in agony._

You sit up on the sleeping bag still hearing the screams from your dream. Only…

They weren’t from your dream. You look around as the other sleeping figures slowly sit up, scrubbing their eyes at the ruckus. A bright blue circular light erupted somewhere but that wasn’t your main focus. You went towards the screams, heart racing, and saw in the dim light from the windows MK contorting in his sleeping bag while a worried Frisk tried to shake him awake. That wouldn’t go well. You saw a glow coming off from him and had a bad feeling about it so you jumped in between Frisk and MK.

You felt your left cheek sting as a whip of sorts slashed at you. MK could create a whip with his magic!? That both surprised you and didn’t at the same time. 

“Stay out of the way for now, okay, sweetie?” You tell Frisk. And then turn towards MK and call out his name as calmingly as possible. “MK. Monster Kid. It’s ok. It’s over now. They can’t hurt you anymore. You’re safe."

His whimpers misted your eyes as you kept trying to call him out using your voice alone to avoid him lashing out. 

“I’m here, honey. I won’t let anyone harm you. I’ll keep you safe. We all will.” His whimpers were decreasing and he wiggled around as if looking for physical reassurance so you leaned to pat his head, but as soon as he felt your hand, his whimper grew louder and terrified once more. A little too late you realized why.

You calmed him down with you voice again. Absentmindedly you noticed someone had turned on the light. You looked up and motioned for Alphys to come over. With the few gestural language you could muster you told her to pat him in your place as you continued to reassure him.

This time he remained calm. He curled into Alphys, half climbing onto her lap. Finally, his body relaxed one again.

“You can shake him awake now if you want. I’m going to makes us tea or something else that’s comforting. Like chocolate milk. He might like that.” You stood up and felt your legs shaky. Waking up from a nightmare yourself to then deal with someone else’s had affected you more than you expected.

You quickly walked to the kitchen before asking everyone’s opinions on drinks. If needed you would poke your head out of the door later to ask them. Now you needed to pull yourself together. You couldn’t allow yourself to fall apart in front of them.

With a deep breath, you start taking out the mugs, only to realize your hands were still shaking pretty badly. You feel Rajani chuckle humorlessly. 

_**This is just plain ridiculous. When it’s just us we handle our nightmares like champs, but dealing with someone else’s... Damn, one would think we’re pansies. You force a smile at how ridiculous you were being.** _

_His screaming might have influenced ours. Especially after that flashback with the teleportation._

With all the mugs out, you take out the teas available, the milk and the chocolate powder. You would take sugar and honey with you on the platter, perhaps even the chocolate for those that wanted some more.

You filled a kettle with water and another with milk, put them on two separate burners and lit them up. You could hear the monsters in the living room talking in a hushed tone, probably trying to ask MK what his dream was about. That was a no brainer to you, especially considering the way he reacted to your hands.

The kid was going to need some help dealing with his post-traumatic stress. Hopefully he was only experiencing the regular kind and not developing the disorder kind. It was natural to have nightmares and all of that so recently after such a traumatic experience. Hopefully it wouldn’t stick for months or years on end. You would need to watch out for symptoms in the future.

Shuffling of feet snapped you out of your line of thought and you saw Alphys entering the kitchen shyly. 

“Hi Alphys. The teas and chocolate milk aren’t ready yet. Sit for a while.” You tell her and she pulls out one of the chairs.

“I-i-it ap-pears we woke Asg-gore up.” She said. “A-again.”

“Poor guy. I’ll make him a cup of tea too.” You immediately opened the cabinet with the mugs and took out another.

“H-hey. Mir-r-randa. How d-did you know h-how to d-deal with… y-you know:”

“Kid’s nightmare?”

“Y-yeah.”

“It’s not unusual for victims of traumatic event to display such type of behavior. I’ve been a victim of a traumatic event so I would know.” You say a bit curtly indicating there would be no more questions.

**And that’s all she needs to know about it.** Rajani adds to you in agreeance.

“I-is your f-face alr-r-right?” 

You cup your cheeks thoughtfully, suddenly realizing that it stung. 

_Were we really this much out of it?_

_**It seems so. Even I forgot all about it.** _

Pain wasn’t something either of you really shrugged off that easily. Sure, most times Raj shielded you from the pain but even she still felt it, unlike what had happened now.

“Stings a bit but it’s fine.” You say when you remove your hand and there’s no blood to be found.

“W-would you like f-f-for me to r-rub a healing g-gel over it? It w-would help.” She offers.

“That… that might actually be for the best.” You had almost told her not to bother but it made sense to heal your cheek. “MK might feel guilty about hurting me, even if it was just an accident. Also, because it helps with the pain.”

“I-I-I’ll b-be right b-back.” With that said Alphys stood up and left the kitchen in a rush.

The two liquids began boiling so you picked a valerian tea to relax everyone and dumped two of the bags in the water. Valerian shouldn’t be given to kids, though, but that was why you had boiled the milk too. You added a few scoops of powdered chocolate to the milk and used a wooden spoon to mix it. As soon as the color was homogeneous you took both kettles out of the burners so as not to burn the milk and so that both could cool down.

Alphys returned with the balm not a minute after and had you sit down on the chair so she could spread it on your cheek, looking far less agitated than before. You felt that sort of popping that reminded you of Crazy Dips that you were beginning to question if it had anything to do with magic. Though weaker, you had felt it in Toriel’s cooking. You had also felt a strong popping reaction to Papyrus’ spaghetti making the regular tasting pasta get an indescribable taste. You’d still liked it, though. 

“Uhm… M-Miranda.” You looked at her in question as she finished rubbing your cheek. “Why d-did you tell m-me to p-pat MK?”

“You’ve got scales.” You say as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it was! …for you. Alphys still didn’t understand.

“W-what?” 

“He was having a nightmare about his attack, right?” You asked.

“I-I would as-s-s-ssume s-so. He d-didn’t really t-talk about it.” She said.

“You saw how he reacted to me touching him, heck even to Frisk touching him, didn’t you?”

“T-that--” She started, an alarmed tone in her voice.

“I’m not accusing him of anything, Alphys, relax.” You soothed her. “But there’s only one reason for him to act that way. His attackers were humans so when he felt my skin while he was dreaming of it he would naturally panic.”

“O-oh! S-so you asked me to h-help because I h-have scales like… l-like his parents…” She concluded quietly looking a bit pale and stricken. She had long finished applying the medicine.

“I thought it might soothe him to be patted by a familiar texture associated with safety. And I was right.” You lifted a hand and placed it on her shoulder in a calming manner. “He might need your assistance in the future. He’ll need all of the help we can give him to get through this.”

“Y-yes.”

“Now! Onto less depressing topics because no one needs to go to sleep in such a heavy atmosphere! How many people would prefer tea and how many would prefer the milk?”

She didn’t have a clue either so you took two platters, one with the condiments and mugs and the other with the steaming kettles. You took the one with the kettles. You didn’t want Alphys to carry all that weight.

The ambience of the living room was cheerful… in a forced way that wasn’t in anyway healthy. The monsters and human were all huddled together around MK, a bit overzealous in trying to cheer him up, which wasn’t helping much.

_**Can’t they see that Kid just wants them to not give it this much importance. The more importance they give this the more freakish he feels.** _

_Some people don’t know that, Raj. They just want to make it all better. They don’t know that this is something that takes time._

“Will you stop crowding the kid, please. He’s had enough excitement for the night and needs to relax, not even more excitement.” You try to sound calm and collected but it still came a bit sterner than you’d wanted. 

Thankfully they did listen to you and backed off, seeming to finally realize they were making MK uncomfortable. MK sent you a look of gratitude and you smiled gently and nodded at him in acknowledgement. 

Putting the platters down, you immediately fill one of the mugs with the chocolate milk and hand it to Kid.

“Do you want more chocolate or is it enough for you?” You ask.

“It’s ok, dude. Thanks. Um…”

You start pouring a cup of chocolate milk for Frisk but hum in response to MK, incentivizing him to go on.

“I’m sorry for attacking you.” He said in a small voice that almost broke your heart.

You hand Frisk their milk and add a few more scoops of chocolate when they ask, handing them a small spoon to mix it. As you do this you reply to MK.

“Thank you for apologizing, but there is no need.”

“But you got hurt!”

“And you were reliving a moment that no one deserves to relive over and over. My pain can barely compare to that. And if you are having nightmares they are hardly your fault. I blame the pathetic blokes that hurt you. And you should too.”

“I didn’t say that I dreamed…”

“There was no need to. But if you don’t want to talk about it you don’t have to. Right now, you should enjoy that chocolate milk and tell me all about that awesome whip magic of yours.” You say, trying to divert his attention from the bad things to something else. Papyrus also wanted the milk so you poured him a cup.

“It’s not awesome. Whips are lame!”

“Excuse me? Tell that to Indiana Jones!” You say as you start pouring a cup of tea for Alphys.

“Who?” He asks, the bad memories beginning to fade back in his mind and his interest sparked.

You smile and tell him all you know about Indiana Jones, promising him to get the movies for him to see as you serve the tea. The others, that had remained tactfully quiet as you talked to Kid, finally joined the conversation. 

Between Undyne wanting to help train MK with his whip, Sans’ punning like crazy and his brother groaning loudly, Alphys discussing Sakura Card Captors ships with you, Frisk trying to emulate Indiana as best as he could using Flowey’s vines and Asgore’s feedback on other magic whip users, the nightmare was soon forgotten and a new special day of the week was created. The Movie Night, the night for monsters to enjoy the human movies you and Frisk deemed they needed to watch.

That night Asgore never returned to his bed and no one used their sleeping bags when they finally fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so how had expected for the one with the PTSD attack be MK? Let me just tell you, writting this chapter was no easy feat. 
> 
> All the research I did on how to help people with PTSD nightmares. There was several sites on how to help someone having an attack while awake but close to none on how to help with nightmares. (and there is a major difference between nightmares and night terrors, I learned that too). 
> 
> In the end it was split between people who said it was best to leave the person be (and this was also strongly suggested by all PTSD sufferers because they fear lashing out at their loved ones if they try to help) and people telling you to wake them up (usually the loved ones that knew how exhausted people with PTSD were the day following from all the nightmares and found that waking them up and calming them before letting them go to sleep worked for a more relaxing sleep).
> 
> I currently writing the next chapter which isn't coming out easy either XC since I had to research the average wage of an american animator, the typical minimum wage, the costs of storage units, foods, and all that jazz to come up with a vallue of what she used to spend before the monsters took her in (this also includes some secret stuff related to why she doesn't have a house that I wont say just yet). I woun't be going into the whole of it in that chapter (second part of it really) but I needed a value.
> 
> anyway, I'm still open to suggestions for the next few chapters. I already have one with cooking in it, one with Mir's work and the monsters, one with her dealing with her storage unit. I'm intending to insert one at some point with her having her period because it would be a neat way to introduce some info on how monsters procreate in a info for info sort of trade...
> 
> well, don't be strangers! I luv all you guys! ^w^


	17. Chapter 16: Lick, Dip and Flip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda cooks lunch with some help and manages to keep it from becoming catastrophic. A certain snack is mentioned and since no one knows what it is they go out to try some. Also, Miranda tries to insert a suggestion into Undyne's mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some more filler. I realized I never made a spaghetti chapter, shame on me, but considering how long it has been since she joined the mansion I decided that has already happened and she reminiscences about it at some point. I _was_ going to insert how much she claims she earns here so that the actual amount would shock you further in the next chapter but it was getting too long so I cut it out and will mention it in a flashback next chapter.

Your last day off had been a week day and you had spent it alone in an empty mansion until the solitude got to you and you ran to Grillby’s. This day off, however, showed the promise of being completely different altogether.

When you woke up you realized you were tangled in a mass of boney and fleshy limbs and could barely move. Both Papyrus and Frisk had decided to hold onto you in their sleep. You were no better, though, considering you were holding Iris like a living teddy dog yourself. Asgore was also holding one of your hounds, Hades this time, while Nucha laid on top of him, using him as a mattress. Somehow Flowey's pot was now next to the king and his flower face was nestled in the crook of his arm. MK was nestled right between Undyne and Alphys and both seemed to happily be cuddling him and each other. As for Sans, it seemed he _had_ been cuddling up to his brother but was now bombarded with your cats. 

It seemed that, when they had realized no one would be coming up to warm the beds with them, they had decided to join them down in the living room. You don’t know why they chose the lay on top of Sans, though. Or how the fabric over his tummy didn’t give under the weight of her cats. Did he actually have a belly there?

You decided to leave monster biology related questions for another day and carefully untangled yourself from the human and monster, placing Iris in your stead. You decide to document the cuddling, though. Especially Alphys, MK and Undyne. She could talk later to the girls about a random idea she had that might be very beneficial to everyone involved. You also make sure to take a picture of sans with your cats on top. You aren't sure why but you find it adorable. You decide not to take a picture of Asgore and Flowey, though. You did feel tempted to but decided that Flowey would die of embarrassment and you would spare him of that.

 _ **I'm not!**_ Rajani said. She intended on teasing him verbally later.

You notice it’s a bit late for breakfast so you decide to get a start on lunch. You had told Toriel you would take care of it, considering she would still be busy and you wouldn’t. You would also be making a quick snack for those that would wake up and feel hungry in the mean while. In fact, you yourself might go for the snack yourself. You search for quick snack ideas to make for everyone and end up choosing Apple Moons in which you slice apples into crescents, you chose to slice yours into eighths , and lather up one side, the one facing up, with peanut butter and cover it in granola.

Just as you finished making the snack Papyrus, Undyne and Frisk entered the kitchen.

“G’mornin’.” You greet them still a bit sleepily and they greet you back in different levels of cheer, Papyrus being the cheeriest. “Have some Apple Moons or whatever they’re called. I’m going to start on lunch.”

“WHAT WILL YOU BE MAKING, SKINNY HUMAN?”

“Toriel left some chicken breasts thawing so I’m going to make my signature dish.”

Frisk signed something. You understood the hand motion of tapping your right index finger to the right side of your chest just below the collarbone and then to the left side in the same corresponding place to mean ‘we’ and the hand motion of a left hand curled in a sort of ‘thumbs up’ over the outstretched palm of the right hand to mean ‘help’.

“Are you asking me if you can help me?” You questioned him before the others could translate and Frisk nodded eagerly and gave you a very enthusiastic ‘thumbs up’. “Sure, I see no problem with that, just follow my instructions.”

All three of them seemed pretty happy with that. You made Undyne cut some onions into quarters and then slice them, along with mashing some garlic. You usually used powderedd one but she was getting antsy so you gave her the go ahead to keep her busy. You made Frisk cut a few sheets of aluminum foil, one for each chicken breast and made Papyrus squeeze some lemons and cut another into slices as you washed the breasts to remove any grime or blood it could have from the butcher. Supposedly there were norms about hygiene but you never know if they had cut other kinds of meat in the same chopping board without washing it.

“Now what?” Undyne asked after using her fists to smash the garlic. She had made too much mashed garlic.

“Now I take one of the sheets and place it on one of these dishes for soup. The depression in the middle will prevent any juices from leaking out before I wrap the breast. Now for the onions. Because these are rather large I’ll place one quarter here in the bottom. With smaller onions place two of the sliced quarters instead.” You proceed to do so, spreading the cut rings of the onion across the center. “Now for some spices I’ll put a bit of salt -not too much, though- and some paprika and a bit of the garlic. Now I’ll take the breast and, before I place it in here I’ll stab it a bit with the knife so that flavor can reach deeper and to stick so herbs in the holes. Now I can place it over the onion and pour a bit of olive oil, a bit of wine and juice from half a lemon. Now for the herbs, you can go nuts with them but I either choose to stick laurel, basil or spearmint, which is the only kind of mint I actually like. The problem with using laurel is that it’s only there to give some flavor and you can’t eat it. Since we don’t have any spearmint here I’ll use basil. That done I’ll add another pinch of salt, paprika and garlic to season this side too, put the other quarter of the onion -two quarters if you’re using a small one-, a sprig of parsley and a lemon slice to press it down. Now you can finally wrap it. Here’s how I do it.” You demonstrate your technique of aluminum foil wrapping and them carefully place the wrapped breast of the heat resistant glass tray you had taken out.

“THAT SEEMS NICE BUT YOU FORGOT TO ADD YOUR PASSION TO IT!” Papyrus commented. You didn’t really understand what he meant by that but smiled anyway.  
“Well perhaps you can add passion to yours, just make sure the foil doesn’t have a hole in it so that the meat and onion cooks in all the juices. Hey, maybe we can even tag each of our wrapped chicken breasts and the we can try each other’s. That way you can go nuts with the seasoning at will and we will still be able to taste one another’s dish.” You say carefully, trying to be as diplomatic as possible. 

They all seemed to like that idea so, with a permanent marker you wrote an ‘M’ on your wrap. Soon wraps with the letters ‘U’, ‘P’ and ‘F’ joined yours. By the end, of all the fourteen chicken breasts you and Frisk had wrapped three each and Undyne and Papyrus had done four each. Because you weren’t very familiar with the oven you decided to set the breast for forty-five minutes. You had to translate the Fahrenheit degrees in the oven into Celsius to know at what temperature to set and still you decided to put a bit bellow your usual just in case. You could always microwave the meat that was a bit raw though you doubted that would be necessary.

You then started boiling the water to prepare some plain spaghetti to go with it. The juices in the wrap would be more than enough to add flavor. As you waited for the water to boil you started gnawing on a strand of dried spaghetti distractedly, startling both monsters and human.

“H-HUMAN. I KNOW YOU MUST BE HUNGRY BUT THERE IS NO NEED TO DO THAT! I’M SURE YOU CAN REFRAIN FROM IT UNTIL THE SPAGHETTI TO BE COOKED!”

“Oh! Sorry. It’s a habit I developed. I like eating dried pasta, in fact. It’s a bit hard to chew considering this state but I like it.”

“Really?” Undyne asked dubiously. 

“Yep. Give it a try if you dare. I’m sure you’ll find it’s not so bad.”

“Is that a CHALLENGE!?”

“Sure, if you want to see it that way.”

“Hah, see you try this!” She took a handful of spaghetti and started chewing on it. Papyrus wasn’t as confident but did take some and started eating it. Frisk wasn’t one to be left behind. You, meanwhile, finished the strand you were eating and took out another.

“Huh! It’s actually not that bad. Not my favorite, but still.” Undyne admitted.

“AFTER EATING A FEW STRANDS, YOU CAN ACTUALLY START TO DISTINGUISH THE TASTE OF THE CARYOPSIS USED IN THE MAKING OF SPAGHETTI.” Papyrus added. The guy sure must love his spaghetti because you have no idea what a caryopsis was. 

You decide to go for something healthier but when you turn to where your apple moons had been you come face to face with nothing. Apparently, someone else had woken up while you four had been distracted and taken the snacks to the living room. You didn’t mind, though, and kept on munching on the pasta as you kept an eye on the oven. You did ask Frisk to check and see if the others were up and Papyrus to ready the leashes to take the dogs out since you had yet to do that. You knew they were capable of waiting a bit but you should still take them before lunch.

Now that you were alone with Undyne you had some quick probing and nudging to do.

“By the way, Undyne. I got a nice pic this morning. If you like it, I can send it to you.” You say pulling out your phone and trying to open the image gallery app.

“Really? Show me!” She says immediately.

“Here you go.” You hand over the smartphone with the pic of her, Alphys and MK cuddling on display. “You guys looked so adorable together that I couldn’t resist.”

“Nice! Send it to me! I wanna use it as my save screen!” Undyne demands, returning the device to you.

“Sure thing!” You send her the picture and continue as casually as possible. “Good thing Alphys was nearby yesterday. I wouldn’t have been able to calm him with my voice alone.”

“Yeah. She told me what you said. It messes me up knowing that all this wouldn’t even be happening if it weren’t for those assholes. And the worst is that I CAN’T EVEN DO ANYTHING TO HELP! I CAN’T EXACTLY FIGHT AGAINST SOMEONE THAT ISN’T EVEN THERE!” She was clearly frustrated by her inaction.

“Meh to that. With some guidelines, I’m pretty sure you could help out too. The only reason that I could even do anything in the first place is because I have experience with the subject. No one is born with the knowledge on how to help someone in this specific situation.”

“Oh yeah! Alphys told me you implied to have been in a similar situation. Who helped you through it?” She asked and you stiffened. Your purpose hadn’t been to talk about your past but to try and build a new future for someone else.

“Rajani and myself. Mostly self-taught stuff. Rajani couldn’t always help, though. Especially if she’s having the same nightmares as me. But that’s old stories that don’t exactly help with the current case.” You say, trying to detail why your case shouldn’t be taken as an example to follow when it came to MK.

“Well… if you-”

“Believe me, the situation is different. Many of my defenses aren’t exactly applicable to MK’s case. Just trust me on that. Besides…” You now try to return to the point you had been trying to get across. “Since Alphys is going to be critical on helping him it might be far more useful for you to learn how to deal with what he is going through than me, considering you sleep together and all that.”

“You’re right, punk. But I’m still not sure on how to deal with that.”

“The internet is a wonderful thing. There are some sites that can help you. They were certainly useful to me.”

“Hey, wait a minute! You said me helping Alphys with MK might be more useful since we will be living together, but that doesn’t exactly help once we actually move out if MK is living here.” She pointed out suddenly and you faked a look of surprise.

“Oh my, you are completely right. I must still be a bit half asleep to have missed that! How ever shall we solve this, then?” Yes, she was. No, you weren’t but there was no need for her to know that yet. And you knew exactly how to solve this but she needed to come to the conclusion on her own. 

You had learned long ago that just you suggesting it never got you anywhere, no matter how sound your logic was. You guess that no one ever really trusted your word. And why would they. You were basically no one. But if they thought the idea was theirs… not only would they be more likely to go through with it but they also couldn't exactly blame you either since you didn’t tell them to do anything. Not that you would ever have anyone do something that would hurt them. You had never done it in the past and never will but even if things were going well for the people you helped they always found a way to blame you for minor things. Things that weren't ever related to your initial sugestion. You guess you were your 'friends' punching bag for their frustrations for a while.

On this specific topic, thought, you were sure you were right, or else you wouldn’t have done anything at all.

“I… huh. I have an idea but I’ll need to talk to Alphys first.”

“Can you give me a hint?” You ask, trying your hardest not to smile in victory.

“Later. It might just be a silly idea. Got to go help Papyrus with your dogs.” She said, noticing the skeleton returning with the leashes and the respective canines.

“Thanks for helping me with the dogs.” You say.

“No prob. Later, punk.”

You finally let yourself smile really wide. You loved helping people. You didn’t even care if you were credited for it or not. At least not until people knowing you helped started to use it as an excuse to blame you for the smallest thing. It surprised you a little to realize you still loved helping people even now. Even after everything you’d been through. It made you feel closer to being the person you had used to be.

You started setting the table and placed three trivets in the center, one for the pasta and the other two to put under the long tray. That done it was then a matter of waiting. Papyrus and Undyne had returned minutes later but they went to the living room. You preferred to wait in the kitchen so was to keep watch on the food.

Once the meal was done you called everyone to the table. You took a bit of chicken from each of your helper’s variety, splitting the breasts with them so they could have a taste of each other’s work. You got praised for your meal, as did the others.

You tasted each of their creations with as much attention as a professional chef. Frisk had decided to replicate your cooking instead of going crazy with it. They didn’t stab it to help with the flavor, though. In fact you had realized they seemed to hesitate in even grabbing the knife. You didn't mind, though. Even tough they were eleven, a kid shouldn't play with knives. Undyne had smashed the chicken instead of stabbing it and used way too much spices. It was still somewhat edible, though. And none of the spices were the kind to burn your tongue so that was a plus. As for Papyrus he had clearly added smashed tomatoes to the mix as well as edible glitter. When you gave it a taste you mouth exploded with the popping sensation from the powder thing that came in Crazy Dips. You inspected it close but saw no sign of said powder.

“Why does this feel like it has Crazy Dips powder in here?” You ask mostly to yourself. 

“What’s Crazy Dips?” MK asked. Papyrus also looked like he would’ve asked if Mk hadn’t first.

“Well, they’re these candy that comes in a packet that has a powder on the bottom and a foot shaped candy in a stick you lick the candy, stuff it back in and it comes covered with that powder, you then put it back in your mouth and feel the powder popping like there are fireworks in your mouth.” You try to explain as best as you could. Frisk gestured something at you and Flowey translated.

“They say ‘The powder is called Pop Rocks, dumbass’!” Frisk quickly flicked one of his petals for insulting you claiming it had come from them.

“I never knew that. Didn't have those in Portugal, only Krazy Dips. But it does taste like it has pop rocks in it, doesn’t it?” Frisk nodded at you in response and you smiled.

“WHAT ARE CRAZY DIPS? WHAT ARE POP ROCKS?” Papyrus asks in a slightly frustrated.

“Oh! You don’t know what pop rocks are!? That won’t do! After lunch let’s get some for you to eat.”

When you had proposed that you thought that at best you would go alone and at worst Papyrus and his brother would be the only ones going with you. What you hadn’t expected was for everyone deciding to go with you. Curiosity seemed to be a common denominator among them. Not that you blamed any of them for that, in their place you would be pretty curious about many things.

In the end, you didn’t have to buy them the Crazy Dips or Pop Rocks since they had their own money, but you did buy some for you. You picked the Blue Razz flavor of Pop Rocks to try and found out you liked it quite a bit. The monsters were pretty surprised when the candy started popping in their mouth, quite audibly at that, and you and Frisk laughed at their baffled expressions.

Papyrus ended up revealing that, while his spaghetti indeed tasted like it had the ‘POPPING SAND’ in it, that was because of the magic he imbued it with. Apparently the slight sizzling or snapping flavors you’d tasted while eating Toriel’s or Grillby’s cooking wasn’t any sort of spices but yes magic. That made you feel odd about the whole situation. 

According to Alphys, as she talked to you while everyone else was distracted tasting each other’s pop rocks, Papyrus had learned to cook from Undyne and, whenever she told him to cook with all his passion so everyone could taste the dedication he put into his dishes, he had interpreted as putting as much magic as he could into it since, according to him, magic came from the soul and, therefore, it was equivalent to passion.

That was sort of cute, when you thought about it. The same sort of interpretation a child would have on the subject. Like adding too much sugar to the cake batter because you like the taste of sweetness.

You all decided not to go back to the mansion just yet to fully enjoy your day off. Alphys and Undyne did want you to work on their manga but after Asgore had told them that you were entitled to use your day’s off to yourself rather than to do stuff for them. You decided it was wiser not to comment against the king, even if you were the kind of girl that would rather stay at home than go out.

They ended up in an arcade and you did enjoy yourself. Rajani too. You did warn them every time you let Rajani take over this time. You wanted no repeats of the nickname thingy she’d done. No one seemed to mind. Heck, Undyne seemed to like Raj’s competitivity, even!

Rajani refused to admit she’d liked it but you knew her enough to realize she was pissed she was actually starting to like those guys, despite not wanting to. Despite not wanting to trust anyone into a position that would enable them to hurt you both deeper. You were both happy and sad for her. She was having fun for once, and not the violent way she _claimed_ she wanted to have fun when you were both teens or even lately, as she stated she wanted to murder your ex for what he had done to you. It was honest to God fun. But the fact that what had happened to you made her constantly weary of everyone made you feel slightly guilty and sad for her.

Still, it wasn’t the time to despair about what couldn’t be changed. It was time to fail so hard at Dance Dance Revolution that you tripped over your own feet, flew in a less than graceful pirouette and landed with a loud thud on Papyrus who, as always, was his great self and quick to reassure you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just love to imagine Sans with the kittycats cuddling on top of him. dunno why but Sans and kitties seem to fit together in my mind XD
> 
> I actually did go to the trouble of researching snack Ideas. I realized I don't know many things to prepare as a snack that could potentially substitute a breakfast and that is healthy so, since I had to research it, I made Mir research it too.
> 
> Feel free to try the chicken breasts recipe. I came up with it when I lived alone for a while, trying new ways to cook things. It is pretty good. 
> 
> I also have the habit of eating dried pasta for real. My friend taught me when we were younger and for a while whenever i felt hungry in the middle of the afternoon I would munch on a few. XD
> 
> Btw, for those who saw my deviant art I just added a 'Ask the Bitties' page if you want to know about each of them. I know it isn't much related to this fic but hey, there might be bitty lovers out there!. If you don't have a Deviantart account feel free to ask here though.


	18. Chapter 17: I Don’t Belong Here in Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate title: Monsters on a Studio
> 
> basically we learn a bit about Miranda's financial situation and she gets an eager visit at her work place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This idea came from a comment by RTNightmare. here ya go. hope you enjoy it. I'm going to say that when I started writing this chapter I had intended for there to be more fluff in it but instead a sad came out. I decided to keep it anyway. Ill explain more on the end notes how that came to be.
> 
> all the numbers I came up with were from sites that listed the average value of living costs as well as salary and... other stuff

As you looked at the chaos around you all you could think was ‘how the heck did this happen!?’. Well, you knew how… sort of. It was one of those butterfly effect thingies. 

Yesterday after leaving the arcade, you had noticed that you were close by to your storage unit so you asked if you could go there get something. They were all very surprised you even had a storage unit considering you lived on the streets.

 

***

 

_“This storage unit costs me $117 per month.” You told them trying to remain calm. “Comparing that to the cost of living in a rented apartment. Well just the one room apartment itself would go from prices of $910,25 outside of the city center to $1 190,90 in the center. Adding to that there’s the cost of utilities. Just the basic ones like water, heating, electricity and garbage disposal would rank up the previous cost up to $148,36 more, and that’s not counting trying to get the internet, which I would consider a moot point since I could just go to McD’s to get some for free, and the phone services, which I already pay for. And this is all without counting food and clothing.”_

_“I t-thought your prof-f-fession received w-well above minimum p-pay.” Alphys said and you almost grimaced._

_“We do, but after I get my pay I can only use around four thousand dollars and most of that money goes into my savings. I’m trying to use the least possible amount.” It was $4292, to be precise, and that wasn’t exactly true. Well it was true that in the end that was all you could in fact use of your pay. That wasn’t the full value of your pay, though, but they didn’t need to know that._

_Fortunately, they seemed to have bought your omission quite easily, probably because most of them either worked high paying jobs, like Alphys after having her degrees approved by the United States, or minimum pay jobs like Sans. Most of them didn’t even have jobs yet. Undyne had tried going to several job interviews but had never received a positive response to that._

_When no one else seemed to have more questions about it you considered the subject closed and excused yourself to go to your storage unit. You quickly retrieved your old laptop, the one whose internet related hardware was so broken you couldn’t get any internet at all, not even with those USB things. It was old, covered in some random stickers someone had given you, and had a broken corner but it was there you had learned to use Illustrator and you still had a lot of your old stuff in it so it had a sentimental value. You wanted to get a few files out but the battery hasn’t worked properly for a long time and you needed to connect it to an inlet if you wanted to have any hope in turning it on, which you couldn’t do in your storage so you had to bring it home._

_Wait… had you just considered the Monster Compound your home?_

_You gripped the computer case tighter as you and Rajani struggled with the newfound feeling. You refused to accept it. You knew there was no home for you now, and probably there never would be. You just wanted to have a home again, you knew that, but just because you wanted it so much doesn’t mean you should just latch onto the first place in a long time you feel safe in. Not even the monsters considered it a home! They were all trying to get out of it, for Christ’s sake!_

_No, the monster compound wasn’t a home, it was a mansion that would become a school somewhere in the future._

_To distract yourself from that line of thinking you looked at some book covers. You wouldn’t bring any with you because that would be settling in but just looking at the titles, both Portuguese and English, was enough to get you feeling nostalgic._

_You locked the storage unit and returned with your old laptop under your arm._

_“I’m back! Lets go.”_

_“You said you were saving whatever money you could… Are you trying to save to buy a house for you or something?” Undyne asked suddenly as you walked back to the compound._

_“W-Why do you ask!?” You manage to choke out, feeling very much startled and on edge._

_“Well, I’m tryin’ to save for a home for me and Alphys and I can’t think of a house that expensive unless you want to buy a mansion or something. Besides, I’m curious.” She says so naturally it almost made you laugh. She had no idea what she was asking. Why you were sacrificing yourself so much._

_Then again, who could possibly believe you were saving your money for your will in case you died? All for someone else, not you. Hell, if it wasn’t for the insurance money you had received you wouldn’t even have enough for a whole year even with three and a half months of saving. You didn’t even get to save enough for two months._

_“Don’t you know curiosity killed the cat?” Rajani took over your body since you were too distracted by your morose thoughts to divert the fish monster’s focus to something other than your savings._

_“ BUT, SKINNY HUMAN. UNDYNE IS NOT A FELINE.” Papyrus commented innocently._

_“True enough.” Rajani admitted and then, seeing a sushi restaurant, she decided to voice one of your mutual questions. “Hey, this might sound weird, but I’m curious too. Undyne, you are a fish monster, but you don’t mind eating fish, right? You said you wanted to try sushi sometime.”_

_“Just because I’m a fish monster doesn’t mean I think of fish animals as my equals, punk. First off it would be like comparing Flowey here to grass.” She said._

_“ not that there’s much difference.” Sans commented in a low tone._

_“HEY! I HEARD THAT, TRASH BAG!”_

_“B-basically we are intelligent and r-r-rational beings and it would be l-like comparing you to monkeys. In t-the underg-ground we had t-t-to use whatever resources w-we had. P-perhaps some monsters m-might have f-felt off put by the physical s-similarities but in the end s-survival was m-more important s-so we raised w-whatever animals there w-w-were as c-cattle.”_

_“Oh, I see.”_

_You learned many things that evening, like how a spider monster named Muffet used real animal spiders that she raised to put in her baking and how Grillby had to wait for the one pair of bovines that had been brought to the underground to reproduce to some extent before starting to purchase meat for his burgers. Apparently, skeletons weren’t freaked out by eating boned animals. According to Papyrus and his dating guide book it was more of an aphrodisiac in the same sense that strawberries and chocolate were, meaning perfectly fine to be eaten in a daily basis but with a sensual connotation on a date._

_It wasn’t until you reached the compound that Frisk had come up with the idea of you bringing all of your stuff out of the storage unit and into the mansion. You had resisted for as long as you could, even against their argument that you would save some more money per month if you gave up the storage unit. In the end, they had insisted so much that neither you nor Rajani had any fight left in you and you reluctantly agreed._

 

***

 

And that brought you to the chaos in front of you at the current moment. 

They had all insisted on helping you bring all of your stuff from your storage to the mansion. Supposedly they had to meet you in front of the unit you rented but had randomly decided to come and get you at your work place instead and, due to a certain skele-fish duo, they came an hour before your workday ended.

And just to make matters worse you had been about to call them to postpone the whole thing due to a sudden Halloween request your team had gotten last minute that you would have less than a month to write, animate, voice and edit so it could go on air at the 31st of October.

Having started on trying to think of what story to write, and having their minds filled with monster related content, your co-workers had gone ballistic when real monsters had come into the studio and were now surrounding them on absolutely all sides. The fact that they were very notorious monsters, and also a very notorious human child, only served to make them even more frenzied.

Your sense of self-preservation sparked and you began trying to discreetly vacate the studio. You weren’t fast enough, though and one of your co-workers spotted you with an amazed expression.

“Castro! You didn’t tell us you were friends with royalty!” That, of course drew the attention of everyone else to you and you could barely do more than blush in embarrassment and freeze. You really hated being the center of attention.

“Good afternoon, my child. I apologize for disrupting your work environment but Papyrus and Undyne were really excited to see your work space.” Toriel said gracefully and you stiffly nod in acknowledgement, still red as a ripe tomato.

Greg, the co-worker that had spotted you first, was now talking to the king enthusiastically. Not everyone on the team was there. Most animators got to leave early and were leaving the story boarding to a small part of you. This time you were there as a character designer instead of story boarder, but you still needed to be present unlike the rest of the animation team since they wouldn’t be needed until there was something to animate. The editing team was also away for the same reason. Greg was the team leader. There were two other character designers so that there would be a variety to pick from and four story boarders, Greg included, to bounce ideas back and forth before deciding on a final one. The character designers were encouraged to give their opinions as well.

Elena, one of the character designers, suddenly sprung up from a conversation she was having with the younger members of the monster group.

“Miss Miranda Raquel Castro! How dare you not tell us you were the witness to the MK trial!” she chided you. She had difficulty properly pronouncing your middle name.

“I… I…” After stuttering a bit you decided to just shut up.

“Wait! She is!? She’s the human witness!? But…” Robert, or Bert as everyone called him, spoke out and you began to dread his next words. Something told you you weren’t going to like it. “Wasn’t the human witness supposed to be homeless? That’s what it said in the TV. And that was why that person was moved to the monster compound.”

“Yo, she really is homeless! She had a mattress and everything in an alley! It was so cool.” MK said helpfully. Dang it!

“Her moving in with us wasn’t just because of her being homeless, punk. That was just a very cool side effect to it. Heck we didn’t even knew she was homeless until the friends of the attackers went after her to shut her up. She pounded them really good, though.” Undyne commented.

“INDEED. IT APPEARDS SOMEONE IN THE HUMAN GUARD’S FORCE WASN’T CAREFUL WITH HER _THEN_ CURRENT LOCATION. ” Papyrus added helpfully.

“No way!! How can that be. You receive the same pay as me!” Nedd, the other character designer, exclaimed. Fuck! Diversion time! Need to think fast!

“That’s my business, isn’t it?” Rajani quickly took over with a raised brow as you internally panicked. “Anyway, people! As you have noticed we sort of received an urgent assignment. I was about to call y’all and tell you to put off the storage dealing for ‘nother day. Not sure when I’ll have free time either.” She said to the monsters.

“I want __ do it _____!” Frisk signed. You assumed they meant they wanted to do it today.

“Tough luck kiddo. It is what it is.” Rajani said smoothly and Frisk pouted with puppy eyes that Rajani was all too immune to.

“Hey, I have an idea!” Said Nedd to you and Frisk, obviously unable to resist the kid’s puppy dog eyes. “We are doing a Halloween special. Halloween is a holiday to disguise as monsters. They are monsters! Why don’t we take some inspiration from them?”

“Isn’t that a bit rude. They came here for a favor to me and we are pushing even more work onto them?” You quickly tried to protest but too late, Frisk was off to talk to everyone else happily and, even worse, they all seemed to want in. You really wanted to keep them away from your work place, especially now, after Nedd’s careless comment. However, both you and Rajani knew that resisting further could lead not only for them all to get the wrong idea, but also to feel compelled to dig deeper. So, you decided to let it slide. Hopefully everyone would be too busy to contemplate Nedd’s comment.

Asgore and Toriel shared some of their folk tales and stories while Frisk and every human aside from you tried to explain what Halloween was about. You amazingly found out that there were some tales that monsters and humans had in common, though not many. It was usually the ones that represented monsters as either good or neutral. The ones with good representations were rare, though and it was mostly neutral tales. Amazingly monsters didn’t have many tales where humans or mages were solely bad guys until after the war. But then, it made sense, considering their kind nature.  
You started taking note of the stories they shared if just so you would want to revisit them later on. Everyone else but for the ex-royal couple and Greg faded out of your focus.

 

\--Sans POV—

 

He was suspicious of Miranda.

Not the same as before. Where before he had feared that one day she would turn all her fighting prowess towards them, now he was worried about what could have forced someone with four thousand dollars per month to live on the streets so she could save every penny of her salary she could for reasons she was all too quickly to dodge answering.

He had looked into house values and the typical rent prices. He was aware a considerable number of humans loved to inflate the rent when it came to monsters so he had to search the internet for the regular prices. Sure, she had given him an estimate of what she would spend but still he liked to check for himself.

He concluded she must be in some sort of debt.

His first thought was student loans. University wasn’t for free, after all, and, after searching the costs to an animation course, especially the prices for Autocad among other programs that were required for it, he knew that it wasn’t cheap either. But when he searched and estimate of a student loan for students in their twenties the average came out at 351 dollars per month. It wasn’t cheap but for someone that had the amount she had dictated it was more than affordable and still rent a one bedroom flat with all the basic needs covered and still save a reasonable amount of it.

He couldn’t understand what she needed that much money for. In the end, though he was still curious and the scientist in him wanted to investigate, mainly because of how suspiciously her soul had flickered when the subject was broached, he had finally decided that it wasn’t any of his business and it was much too trouble for him to go through.

Instead he decided to focus on what he was good at and that brought him to his latest observations on her soul. Ever since the day after the attack on the conference, when Papyrus had told her he believed in her, that he hadn’t seen her soul, at least the grey side of it, flicker with color.

Thought it had been mainly to satisfy his brother, part of his pranks and jokes were also to try and coax it out of her again. Just a little poke here, a little one there. Trying to see exactly what had made her tick. Of the three colors he thought were possible, orange, yellow or green, he tried different stimuli. He had watched her interact with others too. He didn’t think he was close enough to act differently than he had. Not once had her grey soul flickered with color.

And then MK had that nightmare.

Her actions and, later, her explanations to them, fit all three categories in a way. She was brave enough to face MKs magic. It was obvious she had known he was about to do something with the way she’d quickly put herself in front of Frisk. She had kindly calmed MK down and her little speech to him afterwards could be construed as kind. But that speech could also be construed as just. She was quick to assign the blame to the right people and excuse MK from something he had no control over. One could also consider it as a show of integrity and considering half of her soul, the part Rajani inhabited, was integrity, it could also be a symptom of that. He wasn’t quite sure how multiple personalities affected the soul, though.

With all that in mind, he would still have been unable to determine an exact source and what color she had. 

But she had flickered again. 

It came in short bursts as she internally panicked over MK’s nightmare. They were never long enough for him to be sure of a color but it did help him rule out orange as one of them. The flickering hadn’t been a warm enough color to be orange, so Bravery wasn’t the trait trying to emerge out of her soul. 

And that left him with Justice and Kindness, both equally as likely, given past behaviors.

He was still pondering about that when Papyrus came into his room and dragged him to Miranda’s workplace, the questions he had about her need for money long gone from his mind. And then he saw how her gray soul had flickered in panic, especially after that Nedd guy made a comment about her pay being the same as his. He had seen Rajani take over and diverting all conversations about that topic as best as she could.

He was starting to genuinely begin to worry about Miranda. He had been worried before, but after her most recent reaction? Was she somehow owing money to the wrong sort of people. The kind of people that did very illegal things? 

Out of curiosity he decided to ask Nedd about how much did she really earn. His surprise at her homelessness seem far superior than what he’d expected for just a pay of four thousand dollars. He had also noticed that her soul’s aura had wavered oddly when she had told them about how much she earned. Not enough to mean that she was lying, but enough that he knew that she was somehow telling half-truths. So even if all she could use was the four thousand as she’d claimed, it might still mean she had a bigger pay and that part of it wasn’t usable for some reason.

He took the time to see that she was properly distracted in her conversation with her boss and Tori and Asgore. Once he was certain that all her attention was focused there and not around her, especially after his bro and Undyne had knocked down a few articulated doll thingies to the floor with not even a twitch of her eye, he finally decided to ask Nedd.

“heya. nedd, right?!” He asked as he approached the man that was currently attempting to make an extremely outdated, by human standards at least, coffee machine work.

“Oh? Oh, hey! Skele-bro! It’s Sans… right? You didn’t really get much attention on TV but I think I got the name right.” He said jovially.

“yup.” He confirmed.

“Wow, crazy thing, right? I didn’t even think Miranda had friends! She never wanted to hang you with us for the after parties and whenever she was forced to come she was mostly eating and, now that I think about it, stuffing food in her strangely big purse.”

“she did have to feed her cats and dogs too.” Lucky him it seemed that Nedd ran his mouth a lot. He wouldn’t need much prodding.

“Yeah, now that I think about it she did bring her pets in during this summer. I still can’t believe she has been homeless all this time!” Sans could sense a child-like wonder as an undertone in his voice. It seemed that this guy somewhat shared some things in common with his bro. Not many, though. Sans had seen Nedd engage in some double entendre jokes with some of his male palls in the short time they had been there.

“you seem surprised at that. why is that?” Prodding time.

“Well, we don’t exactly receive small pays. And considering she graduated from IADE I doubt she could ever work somewhere where she received less than she already does. She’s good at what she does and, considering she knows several different posts on the job, she’s all the more valuable.”

“really? that’s surprising! how much to you earn? i might consider studying for animator if it really is that good a pay.” It was a lie, of course. He was anything but artistic. The only art he was good at was puns. But it had the desired effect on the enthusiastic man.

“It’s close to fifty thousand I think. Wait a bit, let me check.” Nedd started rummaging on his backpack.

It was a good thing that he was currently distracted with whatever he was searching for in his backpack. If Sans had eyeballs they would be bulging out of his eye sockets. He had expected her to earn more than she had told him, but he hadn’t expected that much of a difference. Now he was really worried. What warranted that she spent forty-six thousand dollars of her pay every month!?

“Hah! Here it is!” Nedd exclaimed suddenly pulling out a paper and showing it to Sans.

Sans quickly hid his surprise before the young man noticed and looked at the paper. It seemed to have the latest movements on Nedd’s account and he was pointing to and entry that stated that $49 952 had entered his account.

“that sure is… a lot. you didn’t need to whip that out though, just the estimate was enough.” Dammit, he couldn’t even think of a single pun to lighten the mood. He needed to chill out for a bit. He needed to approach Miranda about whatever problem she had. But even he knew better than to do so while he was still in this much shock. Besides, they had just begun to be friendly with each other and he doubted she would welcome his concern so soon, especially considering how hellbent she seemed on not letting anyone question her.

All he could do was quietly worry for now.

 

\--Your POV--

 

You had finally delineated some semblance of a story board after Greg called everyone to gather around what you all lovingly called ‘The Oval Table’. Your guests were also invited since their input would be crucial. 

All the directives that you had been given were a Halloween special and nothing more. You had decided to create some awareness towards monsters, especially considering the recent events and all the hate the monster community still had. It would still be mostly Halloween fluff and so on but the social undertone would still be there.

“If I may.” Asgore suddenly interrupted the brainstorming looking solemn. “I… I would like to somehow… Nevermind.”

“No, do go on.” Greg said.

“Yeah, don’t leave us hangin’ like that, brah!” Nedd added, clearly very curious.

“Tori. Would you mind if I asked them to honor our children with their movie?” He asked quietly, eyes slightly glistening.

Toriel looked at him as if seeing him for the first time in a long, long while.

“How- How so?” She asked, her voice breaking.

“It’s just… hearing how children enjoy themselves so much with this holiday, and the candy. Chara would have loved going trick or treating with Asriel. They absolutely loved chocolate and would have loved to trick people that wouldn’t give it to them.” He said as the glistening in his eyes turned into tears. “The more I hear, the more I can imagine it.”

“Oh, Gorey!” Toriel said as her eyes filled too. You had never seen her look so tenderly towards the tall goat monster before or calling him by that nickname. And then she went even further by reaching out and holding his hand as they cried in silent tear.

“It was my fault! I wasn’t there for them. Always pushing useless papers in the office that amounted to nothing important. I could have noticed Chara was falling ill sooner! If I had maybe we could have gotten an antidote in time. I could have stopped Asriel from doing something rash and taking their soul! I could have…” At that moment he was crying so hard he couldn’t even speak anymore.

“Oh, Gorey. It’s not your fault. I… I left them too. Always going to visit the other regions to see about their needs. I neglected our children. You had a duty to the kingdom. Those papers weren’t useless. They were requests from all your citizens. They had written in them the very same things I would learn during my walks. I could have spent more time at home with them. I could have been there!”

Most of your coworkers were feeling a bit awkward at the unexpected display of grief. You? Not so much. You stood up, came up behind the two and hugged the both, together with Frisk. Nedd, the most emotional of your teammates, joined next. The hug slowly turned into a group hug with everyone involved. Artsy people were always big suckers for emotional stuff, after all. And the others knew the ex-couple for a long time. 

Many of the group started crying along with them. You were not one of them. Though the pain they were feeling inside affected you very acutely you felt strangely unable to do so. It had been a long time since you actually cried aside from a particularly strong PTSD flashback. You felt awful for not crying. Though Rajani told you it was ok and natural you hated yourself a bit more for it. And even more than that for making it about you in that corner of your mind when this wasn’t supposed to be about you.

“You were a good mother, Toriel. Despite all that happened afterwards, that doesn’t change that you were the best mother they could have had. You always made time to teach them how to cook and tell them stories to help them fall asleep. I shouldn’t have gotten that angry at the humans for killing my son.” Asgore finally said, sniffling a bit. 

“And you were a good father, Asgore. Despite declaring war on humanity in the heat of the moment, it doesn’t change that you were the best father they could have had. You always managed to get time from your work to play with them in the garden and show them some parts of the underground, introducing them to all the citizens. I should have stayed and calmed you down, or at least actively opposed you instead of fleeing from my responsibilities as a queen.” Toriel said, even though the last sentence seemed to have been forced out of her.

It surprised you to realize that this was probably the first time they actually spoke to each other about their loss. That, with this they were at last completing the process of grieving into acceptance. You knew there was some bad blood between them but you never realized the loss of a child… TWO children, was the primary source of it, and you felt for them.

“I would also like to honor our children with this messaged of peace.” Toriel finally said resolutely. “If you so allow it.”

“Oh, man! Huh… let me check with my client.” Greg said surprised that the topic went back to the Halloween special. Underneath his breath, so low that only you, who were currently closest to him, could hear, he added. “I hope they agree with it. These two deserve it.”

Greg left the room with his phone attached to his ear.

“I apologize for falling apart like that.” Asgore said looking embarrassed.

“Have you ever talked about this to anyone before?” Marcie, one of the story boarders, asked. She’d researched some things about psychology for a grieving character once so It was obvious she would know the signs of someone who had yet to come to terms with their loss.

You decided to leave the king to her as she had certainly more knowledge about that issue than you, even if she wasn’t a psychologist. You turn to see Toriel going off to a less populated area while nobody was looking. Just as you are about to go to her when you see Sans approaching her, sympathy in his eyes. 

Those two always seemed as thick as thieves with one another. Always joking around, even some private jokes here and there. But it was also evident that they cared for one another. At time you had wondered if they were in a relationship or on their way to it. Whatever their relationship was you were pretty sure that Sans was a better fit at helping her than you would be so you decided to leave him to it. You would at least try to keep everyone else sufficiently distracted from them so as not to disturb their conversation. Toriel was in serious need of a private conversation right now.

You decided to show everyone the modeling clay your team had around to make models for the CG characters. There was a surplus of it since your team’s modeling expert rarely made mistakes and was anal about keeping his models safe.

Frisk asked if they could make something with the clay and you handed they small pieces the size of your hands to each one. MK and Frisk immediately teamed up since MK couldn’t use his arms. Alphys and Undyne also teamed up, deciding to make two characters that would pair up. Papyrus was working alone. Flowey was acting… odd. You half expected for him to start chewing the clay out of spite or along that line. At least start insulting everyone else’s works.

You hadn’t expected to see Flowey looking so dejected. Aside from Frisk, who sent him so worried glances from time to time before continuing his work, it seemed everyone else had forgot the flower monster was even there. He wasn’t exactly your favorite kid but you didn’t like to see anyone looking this sad so you went up to him.

“Sup, got any ideas yet?” You ask sitting on the desk closest to his pot.

“What?” He asked as if snapping out of a trance. I nod towards the ball of clay. “Oh! What’s it to you, idiot!”

_**Let me help you with him.** _

_Ok._

“Hmm, you scared it won’t measure up to the others? Just because you can draw doesn’t mean you can do anything else.” Rajani said. The objective was pissing him off enough to snap him out of his sadness.

“I’m not!!!” Floweys shouted at you vexedly.

“Yeah, right. Like I believe you.”

“I can make the best sculpture of all these idiots!”

“Oh really?” Rajani said dispassionately and then fixed him with a daring stare. “Prove it, cry baby!”

Flowey seemed shocked at Raj’s choice of wording but then he expression turned determined as he turned towards the clay grumbling an irate ‘I’ll show her, calling me a crybaby! Hmph!’. He immediately became so entranced that he didn’t react much when Rajani patted his head comfortingly, sadness long forgotten. He did seem to blush a bit like some sort of tsundere flower, though.

You were surprised when Greg walked back inside your assigned studio not long after that. You had thought that talking with the clients would’ve taken longer, if he was trying to convince them to go with Asgore’s request.

He informed you that the client was more than thrilled by the prospect. Not only would it add automatically all of monsterkind as viewers if it was advertised that it was a memento to the fallen royal children, but also garner some viewers curious about monsterkind in it self.

Toriel, once calm, told your team about Chara and Asriel before they died. You learned that, despite all their differences, Toriel’s kids had been good friends and good siblings. It horrified you to find out that, instead of falling, Chara had been tossed down the hole with the intention of killing them. It was at times like these that you could understand Rajani’s opinion on how the world would be better off if all humanity was wiped out (well, that was what she said, but you knew she meant just the awful people, not really everyone). 

It was decided that the movie would feature a monster kid and a human kid as main characters. The human kid would be trick or treating and would come across the monster kid some times. At first from afar, to which they would feel disturbed, and finally face to face as the human child would face some bullies and the monster child would find them after they were beat up and try to help them by bringing them home and healing them. 

Then they would proceed trick or treating together but this time the bullies would avoid them because they were afraid of monsters. The human child would be mad at that but the monster one wouldn’t care. They would meet with more monster kids get into lots of shenanigans and sugary trickery and, in the end, humans and monsters, the bullies included, would all learn to get along and become friends. Most of the plot line was still undecided but that was the premise so far.

After several sketches you Nedd and Elena had come up with a design that was different from Chara and Asriel, but still reminiscent of them somewhat.

Other characters included inspirations from the other monsters present there, namely the sculptures the kids, Undyne, Alphys and Papyrus had made. It would even include the relationship that Alphys and Undyne had made for their figures. Aside from Papyrus, the sculptures were mostly mediocre but none of them minded if they improved on them. You couldn’t find Flowey’s sculpture anywhere, though.

Undyne had also decided to pose, together with Papyrus, for some of the characters and suggested anime based costumes, to which Alphys asked if one of them could be from her favorite character from Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. 

Marcy, one of the story boarders, had a blast explaining to MK, Frisk and Flowey how the programs you used worked. Though she wasn’t exceedingly good at them she knew the basics and the basics were all they needed.

At some point, you were pretty sure that Undyne had suplexed a table, while you weren’t looking, just because she could. That state of the table spoke for itself. Poor Table-kun. Well at least Table-kun hadn’t been raped by Nina this time, you guess. Any Table-kun would find preferable being suplexed by Undyne to that.

Despite everything, you had fun working with them there. You hadn’t noticed before how fun your co-workers were either. Usually the ambience wasn’t so relaxed. You guessed that anyone meeting that merry bunch would naturally become less tense.

Once the basic plot and characters were finally decided you noticed that it had only passed one hour after your usual work schedule.

Greg thanked the monsters on everyone’s behalf and called the work for the day as over. Unfortunately, it also meant you would still have to get your stuff from storage. You resignedly lead the way. You weren’t quite sure what to expect from that aside from complete embarrassment. You hoped no one would find your Sherrilyn Kenyon and J.R. Ward collections… or your little personal purple ‘vibe scepter’.

This was going to be so cringe worthy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Nina and Table-kun thing are a reference to a scene in code geass.  
> When I started writing about the halloween special it came to mind that Asriel and Chara would have loved Halloween, especially Chara. So if I could associate it with them, so would their parents, who had a deeper connection with them.  
> Thingking about their parents, I came to realize that neither of them actually dealt with their grief properly. Toriel is constantly trying to fill the void left in her heart by adopting more kids and becomes attached to them to the point that she actually gets physically confrontational when they try to leave her. I would say that she might still be a bit in denial over the loss. Her running away might have been a part of it. It wasn't just Asgore's anger. Heck the way she quickly puts him in his place when she comes for Frisk in the true pacifist ending clearly shows that she has power over him, so if she had waited for him to calm down then perhaps that could've been avoided. I think part of the reazon why she ran was because she couldn't deal with the loss, on top of everything else. Asgore was also in no place to help her with her grief.
> 
> As for Asgore. His first reaction to the loss was anger, it burned hot enough that drove Toriel away and made him declare war on humanity. Toriel had been in no condition to help him grieve just as much as he wasn't prepared to help her through it. After anger came depression. He basically maintained the front of wanting war on the humans for the sake of his people but when we talk to him we can tell that he is forcing himself to do it in a way. He is no longer angry about his situation. He feels more like resigned and if it wasn't for his people needing him he probably wouldn't even put the effort.
> 
> That being said, passed the first wave of strong emotions they both could have reached out towards one another but in my interpretation they were too stubborn to do it. When it comes to Toriel that stubbornness is more obvious by refusing to leave the ruins, but all things considered the underground only has so many places to search so it wouldn't have taken long for Asgore to realize where Toriel was. And it's not in Toriel's character to take another monster's dust and fut one of her dresses on it to pretend to die so that's out of question too. And being a Boss Monster Asgore could have opened the door to the ruins or at least talked through it with her.
> 
> With these in mind I wanted to give them a chance to break the ice when it came to that topic and finally grieve in a healthy way. Flowey is grieving too but no one aside from Frisk knows that. (Well, Alphys could have but aside from knowing she gave life to a flower I've read nothing to indicate she knew that flower had Asriel's consciousness.)  
> Also it would be natural that, in an unhealthy grieving process, both parties would have developed some self blame to an extent. They might have projected it on the other or not, but self blame is usually there. I know I had my unhealthy dose of it before I started this tribute.
> 
> well... sorry for the long rant. hope you like the chapter and have a nice week. next week we'll have bed time stories, nurturing Miranda, inappropriate books and objects mentions and McDonalds Rants.


	19. Chapter 18: The Skeleton Who Overworked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda gets embarrassed over he personal possessions. Everyone decides to go to McDonalds for food. Miranda reads a book as a bed time story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've officially started my second semester in IADE. I didn't get a taste yet of all the classes, only four of them. So far I think I'm going to love programing since it deal with html and, unlike many of my class, I have some basic knowledge of the stuff due to this site and writing Madstuck with the friend this fanfic is dedicated to. (it's a webcomic based on Homestuck but with a group of my friends as the main characters... My character never showed up since she was a troll. maybe one day I'll try to write it again in her honor but for now I can't. Not to mentions most of the friends we were writing it with ended up drifting away which was hard on her so... if I tried to write it now I would make their characters as bad guys or kill them all off horrifically and that wasn't what was meant to happen... but hey, if you want to read what I have, here's a link: http://mspfanventures.com/?s=12196 Marisa is Miranda's character.)  
> aside from that I spent this week in pain and at some point I couldn't make the slightest move without causing a Niagara Falls of blood. I wish I could have had this happen when I actually write the period chapter but no, it had to happen now -_-*  
> feel free to ignore my rants.

The first thing you did once you entered your storage unit was search for your lady stick before anyone else could find it. That was the easy part. Once in a while you would feel the urges and come all the way to your storage unit for your 'Robocop', use it as silently as possible, clean it with some water you brought with you, and leave after putting it back in the box. Because of that you always knew where it was and you could easily retrieve it without anyone noticing.

Or so you thought until you turned around and saw Alphys eyeing you completely flustered. She seemed to want to ask you about it on one side, being the curious sort. On the other she was completely embarrassed for even having caught a glimpse of it.

You both tactically decided to pretend that had never happened with an exchange of nervous eye contact.

“Whoa! This is a lot of stuff, yo!” MK said, eyeing the pile of domestic gadgets and cardboard boxes.

Some of the boxes, the ones with books, were open. Frisk grabbed a book, that you instantly recognized, and frowned at the cover. They showed it to the others as each frowned in confusion at it and you burst laughing at that, turning their focus to you.

“Can’t read it, can you?” You asked them. 

Frisk gestured a bit but you couldn’t understand most of the gestures yet. Sans translated it to you.

“the kid’s saying that they sort of guesses what’s written there because of the movies.” He said handing you the book.

Written on the cover was ‘Harry Potter e os Talismãs da Morte’ and you couldn’t help but feel nostalgic at it.

“It’s ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’, the last book of the Harry Potter saga.”

“WHAT’S AN HARRY POTTER?” Papyrus asked.

“It’s the main character’s name. It’s a story about wizards and witches and it became quite popular. I used to only read picture books until the first movie came out. Then my mom told me about the books and I decided to read them and was hooked. The Harry Potter saga made many kids interested in reading when it came out. It was awesome.” You explained and Frisk nodded in agreement.

“HOW CAN YOU READ IT WHEN ITS WRITTEN IN SUCH PUZZLING LETTER DISPOSITIONS.”

“It’s my native language, Paps. I grew with it. It’s easy peasy for me to read it.”

“OH, OK!”

“The cover looks pretty worn.” Asgore noted.

“I read the saga a lot. I love it all. The magic, the mystery, everything! It was a great part of my childhood and the books aged with me in a way. I was around ten or nine when the movie came out and binge read the books that were already out. And the characters become more developed with each book as if they were growing older before my eyes. Some books targeted at my age group back then can’t quite manage that. Either the characters become permanently the same age mentally or out of the blue they act differently. Then again, most books don’t exactly feature characters while they are growing up, do they? … and I’m rambling. Oh god!”

They reassured you that it was okay to gush over childhood memories but you noticed Papyrus suddenly looking at you like he wanted to ask you something.

“Do you need anything?” You ask him, slightly worried.

“WELL, AS YOU ARE AWARE SANS USUALLY READS ME STORIES AT NIGHT AND I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THIS SAGA READ TO ME. SINCE YOU PRAISED IT SO MUCH I THINK IT JUST MIGHT BE UP TO PARR WITH MY GREATNESS. BUT… SANS DOESN’T KNOW THIS LANGUAGE.”

“I could download the original English version from somewhere in the internet for you. If you like the story, though, I would recommend you actually buy the books so that the author gets payment for a work well done.”

“OF COURSE! THANK YOU, SKINNY HUMAN!” He then seemed to be distracted by another box in the storage unit. You didn’t blame him for getting distracted. The others were strolling wherever they could, curious about your possessions. That was until you noticed what he was now reaching for. “OH, THESE ARE IN ENGLISH!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” You scream, face red as a cherry, making everyone look at you. “N-NOT THOSE! T-THOSE Are not… appropriate.” By the end of it you voice was so small only ant could hear it as you could almost swear steam was coming out of your ears.

“HOW SO?” Papyrus asked but before you could elaborate Undyne quickly scooped the book from his hands.

“OOOOOOOOOO! Lemme see!” She opened the book, more specifically Sherrilyn Kenyon’s ‘Fantasy Lover’ that had close to none action… unless you counted the sort that happens in between the bed sheets. 

It didn’t take much to realize that she had somehow landed on one of those steamy scenes considering her blue skin turned completely red in her face and she froze. Just your luck. The others start peeking over her shoulder, or under her armpits in Alphys’ and Sans’ cases. Before they manage to comprehend what they are seeing you swiftly pluck the book from Undyne’s hands and shove it back in the box, closing it as tightly as you could.

“Uh… I never pegged for the type…” Undyne commented, still looking like you had just decked her in the face out of the blue.

“Yes, I’m an introvert. That doesn’t make me less than a perfectly fine and healthy woman, dang it!” You say defensively. “I-it just so happen that I’m pretty healthy and that health extends to my literary needs as well.”

And with that you were the fuck outta there! With a ‘huff’ you heave the heavy box up and hold it with the help of your hips, taking it outside the unit where Toriel had parked her minivan. You could hear a puzzled Papyrus asking about what was wrong with the book. You decided to wait outside until they calmed down…

And until you face was back to a normal, and less red, color.

Aside from that incident nothing much happened during that process. Everyone seemed to be tactically avoiding mentioning your erotica stack. Thank god you used your buzzfriend often enough that you could just go in and hide it before an innocent soul stumbled upon it. You could just imagine how worse it would have been if anyone had stumbled into that instead.

Not everything fitted in the minivan so Toriel set off with her car packed full of boxes as the rest of you distributed the remaining things equally among yourselves. Supposedly Sans would be teleporting you on at a time to home but somehow Undyne and Papyrus decided to race back home with your stuff. You just prayed nothing happened to your things.

Once ho-… in the mansion, you allocated the boxes in your assigned room but didn’t bother to unpack since you were pretty sure it wouldn’t be much long before you had to relocate again. It was good to have clothes around without having to stop by the unit to get them, though.

You also hid your metal and silicone little friend as soon as no one is watching. You do the same for the box of erotica once Toriel arrived in the minivan with more boxes. You do take the clothes out of their box, at least the ones appropriate for the cooling season. Once it’s done you close the door so no one could see you hadn’t unpacked anything other than your clothes. Your electronic house equipment was put in one of the empty rooms on the deserted third floor since they wouldn’t be used.

It was dinner time once all of your stuff was taken care of and Toriel was running late for dinner and Sans was running late for his four-hour long night shift at McD’s. You suggested going there for dinner. Personally, you were a bit tired of McDonald’s food, having had to eat it as a regular meal for almost three years and having worked in one for a year and a half, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

Papyrus was a bit reluctant to agree to it but it the end, after you told his there wasn’t just greasy food there and that they had healthier options too, he finally agreed.

Sans teleported ahead because he was late and you all took Toriel’s minivan. Her car sure was having a busy day. 

As soon as you got there you picked two tables next to each other so as not to be separated while you ate and started to decide on the menu each of you would chose. 

You would eat a big mac with a side of salad and a coke, Frisk, Mk and Flowey picked happy meals with chicken nuggets, Toriel, Asgore and Papyrus chose three different salad menus and Undyne and Alphys picked burgers with fries. Papyrus also decided to wash down his meal with a chocolate and shamrock shake. You all decided to order the desserts later.

You managed to convince Toriel to let you pay because you wanted to thank their help and because now you wouldn’t need to pay the storage unit. This time things really did go your way. It seemed you only couldn’t deny Firsk when he insisted on something.

You stood up and waited in line with a list of the meals. As you waited you tried to peek into the kitchen and frying areas and located Sans in the BOP all alone. Where these managers daft!? It was dinner time, the busiest of times, and they left Sans in the BOP all alone!? Well there was one dude taking care of the fried potatoes but no one was helping Sans with frying the chicken and fish produce, garnishing the burgers and sandwiches and wrapping them up. At least the other workers weren’t constantly badgering him for nuggets and took it upon themselves to fill up the boxes and baggies they needed, but they weren’t telling him if they needed to have more nuggets fried or not.

The poor guy looked tired but you didn’t really see any way to help him with his plight.

You finally got to order the food and had to make multiple trips with the trays until everyone was served. You were still fuming as you sat down.

“Child, may I as what’s troubling you?” Toriel asked upon seeing your expression.

“They are definitely overworking Sans.” You said somewhat bitterly.

Toriel made an expression of understanding, meaning she was probably aware of it and Undyne and Papyrus looked at you surprised.

“Really!? How so, punk?”

“They put him in the BOP all alone at rush hour.”

“What’s the BOP?”

“Bridge Operational Post. It’s where the chicken and fish produce is fried and the respective sandwiches are assembled. It’s one of the busiest positions you could have, especially at dinner time. Nuggets are bought at the speed of light so he has to constantly fry more of them. And since he is alone he has to deal with not only frying things but also taking care of everything else, including stocking any supplies that run out like the sauces and such.” You say indignantly. “I had to work in the BOP most times when I worked part time in a McD’s once and I can tell you it’s not easy. And I was never alone at rush hour, that’s for sure.”

“You worked at a McDonalds?” Asgore asked.

“Yup. Part time. Most people were nice but there was one particular ‘woman’ and her pall that worked there that managed to tick most everyone off. Most times I was picked to work with them. I must have had the patience of a saint to deal with their ‘shenanigans’.” And every time you thought of them you had to force yourself not to use curse words like you were handing out candy in Halloween, hence why the word ‘woman’ and ‘shenanigans’ had been literally spit out instead of going with instinct and saying ‘bitch’ and ‘shit’.

“W-where they r-really that b-bad?” Alphys asked.

“You have NO idea. Most of my coworkers at the time refused to work with them, especially that one ‘woman’. They acted like bullies in a high school movie and were lucky enough that I wanted to be the better person instead of paying them back in the same coin. Well… most of the time anyway.” You blushed slightly when you recalled the time you had snapped at the bitch.

“What do you mean most of the time? Did you suplex one of them!?” Undyne seemed to get excited.

“Naw. That would have gotten me fired. But one day let’s just say my mental state wasn’t the best and that one ‘woman’ kept pestering me. Three times I warned her seriously to leave me alone that day because I really wasn’t in the best of moods to deal with all the ‘stuff’ she was spouting at me and three times she ignored my request so I… sort of snapped, grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and told her to knock it off right now.” You say a bit ashamed for having snapped that way.

“Yo, what did she do?” MK asked.

“She started spouting stuff like ‘do you want ta fight me!?’ and ‘ya want to have beef with me?’ as she flailed her arms like some doofus.”

“Tell me you suplexed her!” Undyne almost begged.

“Pff. I could totally have done it too. She was even shorter than Alphys and her eyes barely reached the level of my boobs. Naw. I just stood there all smug as she embarrassed herself and one of the guys in the grills came to grab her. I guess I was a hero for some time after that since no one had snapped at her before in fear of losing their job. I just went on working like nothing had happened and finished my shift. Filed a report on my version of the facts for the restaurant’s owner. She started telling everyone I choked her and the ones that weren’t there at the time came asking me if it was true. In the end, no one was fired but she never messed with me again so that was a win as far as I’m concerned.”

“I would have liked it better if you had suplexed her but that’s still cool, I guess.” Undyne said.

“Thanks. I’m not usually this badass though. That’s usually Raj’s turf not mine.” You said and Rajani emerged out of you just to say: “Believe it!!!”

“T-that was R-Rajani just now, w-wasn’t it?” Alphys asked uncertainly.

“Yup.”

“IT IS A BIT CONFUSING TRYING TO DECIFER TO WHOM I’M SPEAKING WHENEVER SHE TALKS.” Papyrus admitted.

“Hmm… p-perhaps…” Alphys muttered as she seemed to think hard about something. Whatever it was she didn’t elaborate.

The conversation topic shifted to Rajani for a while as well as what other badassery you guys may have performed before, not that there were many stories to tell them.

The conversation ceased for a bit as Toriel stood up to get the desserts and you took the chance to access the free wi-fi to get the Harry Potter books 1 and 2. The other books were online in a site you used to read stories for free without having to download them. It was difficult since most links you tried were licensed but you finally managed to do it. You would have bought it in e-book version, but you really didn’t know how to buy stuff via the internet and decided it was safer to just find a free download and get it there, even if it might fill your cellphone with virus, than ending up buying something expensive by mistake because you were a moron and internet-ignorant.

You finished your meal while everyone one advised Undyne on what not to do at a workplace. You suggested boxing or wrestling since she liked fighting so much, which only reminded her she had yet to fight you and insist on doing it on your next day off.

Once home you transferred the Harry Potter PDFs to your laptop for a better reading experience since you didn’t want to constantly squint your eyes to understand the words. You decided that today you would be doing the reading yourself. Sans deserved a break and to rest after all the work he had on his shoulders. Since he had begun working at 8PM his shift would end at midnight. 

After explaining your plan to Papyrus, he promptly agreed but insisted on waiting for Sans to come home so he would have the story read to him too. According to him, though Sans tended to disguise it, he never slept well at night and had a lot of nightmares, which surprised you. You agree with him too, even if you had an early morning the next day.

So here you were, sitting on Papyrus’ bed as he snuggled with a teddy bear, with a relaxing tea that Asgore had suggested still warm, waiting for the short skeleton. What a weird day.

“SKINNY HUMAN...” Papyrus pulled you out of your reverie looking serious and concerned. “SANS THINKS... I DON’T NOTICE HOW TIRED HE IS. HE WANTS TO PRETEND I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. EVEN IF I DO. IF I OPENLY WORRY ABOUT HIM HE’LL ONLY HIDE FURTHER AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO OTHER THAN PRETEND I DON’T NOTICE BECAUSE IF HE KEEPS HIDING IT FURTHER AND FURTHER HE MIGHT ONE DAY SNAP LIKE YOU DID WITH THE MEAN FEMALE. SO I ASK YOU TO PRETEND YOU DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING TO ME. HE DOESN’T HIDE AS MUCH WHEN IT’S OTHER PEOPLE WORRYING SO…”

“Oh, Paps!” You hugged him. Even if you didn’t know what the deal with the skeleton brothers, particularly Sans’, was, you could just tell how much Papyrus worried for his older brother. “Ok, but if you want to vent about your worries remember that I’ll listen, ok?”

“OK.”

You both heard the door next to Papyrus room open. It was Sans’ door. He must have arrived. It didn’t take long for Sans to walk into Papyrus’ room and frown at your presence there. You found his confused expression hilarious and sort of endearing too and smiled at him, offering the tea cup.

“uh… thanks.” He said as he took it. “what are you doing here?”

“I was going to read to Papyrus but he insisted on waiting for you so you could hear it too.”

“oh. there’s no need. i can take it from here.” He said as he looked around for the book, failing to notice that you had your laptop with you.

“Nope. You just got back from work and deserve a break. Now don’t force me to tuck you in. If Papyrus wants you to listen then you are gonna have to listen. Jump in!” You pat the comforter on Papyrus bed for emphasis.

“…” He stared at you as if you were kidding. “nah, it’s ok. if you’ll read to paps then i’m going to sleep.”

He started for the door again and you stood up and grabbed his sleeve. 

“That would all be fine and dandy but that’s not what Paps wants, now is it?” Rajani spoke though you. That wasn’t what Papyrus had wished for so you both would make sure that Papyrus got his way. Well... you would make sure that Papyrus got his way while Rajani made sure you got yours and since both your ways aligned...

Somehow Sans started sweating a bit. Not much, but still.

“… ok.”

“Good, let’s go.”

“can’t.”

“…Why? 

“too lazy to move.”

Was he expecting for you to give up like that? Or Rajani for that matter? Oh boy, he is in for a treat.

Rajani leaned forward until her whole front was practically glued to his back and whispered in his ear. “Want me to lift you up?” Rajani said maliciously as she curled an arm around his waist.

“w-wha-!!?!??” Sans turned around, surprised at the contact and flirty tone and, before he could understand what was going on, Rajani lifted him up and carried him princess style to the bed where Papyrus had pulled back the covers.

He landed in a flop on the mattress and his brother quickly tucked him in and held him like a giant and boney teddy bear, which was adorable to say the least.

“Miranda might not go so low to get her way but I will. So, remember that next time, ok?” Rajani warned him with a giant big smile that hid silent threats and you took over again. “With that out of the way, shall we begin?”

“YES!!!”

Sans merely grunted.

“Ok.” You opened the lid of the laptop and opened the PDF file. You scrolled down the page with the cover until you reached the text and began reading. “ _Chapter one. The boy who lived. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense._ …”

It was odd, reading such a familiar text in a different language. It was odd, how your mind translated it to Portuguese almost accurately. It was so familiar but so different at the same time. And you also realized that it was the first time you read the story out loud.

Papyrus was pretty bored at first, considering how perfectly normal the Dursleys were, but as soon as the strange things started to happen his interest peaked. Sans at first tried to pretend he wasn’t listening and that he had fallen asleep but as soon as you reached the part where Dumbledore and McGonagall are discussing Harry’s future he opened one of his eyes.

As you read on the second chapter you noticed that, despite the interest on what would happen next, both were slowly closing theirs eyes. Papyrus still protested a bit about how they were being mean to an innocent boy when you read about how the Dursleys treated Harry and gasped when the glass to the snake enclosure disappeared, but only after you explained how dangerous pythons could be. Sans only listened with attention, not commenting or asking anything.

“ _…had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a-_ ” You paused your reading when a snore interrupted you and you noticed that both of them were sleeping soundly.

You didn’t know when you had found yourself feeling so… nurturing? You supposed it had started with the younger skeleton. He’d been the one to spend more time with you, after all. No matter how little time you two had actually spent together chatting it still had managed to make an impact in you, it seemed. That, and the fact that he saved you both literally as well as mentally, considering how close you’d been to a break down, were the main reason why you’d become attached more quickly to him over the other residents.

You didn’t know why you were going all Momma Bear on Sans too, though. You guessed you felt sort of guilty. Sure, he’d been pranking you a lot and making silly jokes, pretending to want to be chummy with you. But you should have still noticed how tired he was. It wasn’t a foreign look to you. 

And now that you’d finally taken a good look at him as he entered the room?

While he didn’t exactly have eyebags he did have some odd indentations just a bit below his eye sockets that seemed to be the skeleton equivalent, especially considering that Papyrus didn’t have them.

Papyrus did say that Sans was trying to save money for buying their own house. Buying a house instead of renting it wasn’t cheap and Papyrus hadn’t been able to secure a job so far. You could understand Sans' need to guarantee a home for them both. More than you ever wanted to. Of course, the fact that they both looked so cute while snoring and holding each other like skele-teddies only hit you further on your weak spot. You and your need to take care of others even if they didn’t want you to…

With a smile, you noted down the page you were at just in case and turned your laptop off. Once that was done you tucked them in and stood back, watching them sleep for a second. 

So cute…

You left for your own room, getting ready for bed yourself, and looked at the clock on your night stand. It was well beyond one in the morning but you didn’t mind. You had trouble sleeping anyway so it wasn’t a big deal. Hopefully you wouldn’t have another nightmare with how tired you were. You would be having a long day tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter: criptic stuff.


	20. Chapter 19: <3!?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> !?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Çr̷͘y̨̢͝p҉͢͞t̷̵̵̨͏i̶҉͘c͏ ͏̢͘͏C͜҉h̷͜a҉̨̢p͜t̛͏e̴͜r̴̨͜ ̷͜N̶̶͢o͟͠͏̸ ̵̢͏̵1̸̢͝
> 
>  
> 
> C̵͇̺̙̬͔̺̖͓̭̞̱͙͍̣͙̺̝͕̘ͧ̽ͥ̾ͤ̓ͪ̀͐͆̓̃̚͘͠a̠̹̤̠̰̻ͧ͑͑̇͆ͬͤ̐͒̒ͯ̈̾̆̎ͣ̏͜͞r̛̙͉̫͎̘̮̮̩̦̠̉̐ͬͤ̒ͩ̓̄͒̊͛ͯ̓ͭ̋ị̢̪̥͉̫͙͖̼̹̪͔̬͉̝̀͆͗̒̉̆̃ͧ̓ͥ̍͂ͬ̉͜ņ͆̓͌͌̏ͫ̀̀̏̽ͮͧ̚͠҉̸̛̣̱̖̺̝̯̠a̶͉̻̭̣͕̠ͣͪ̂ͮ͋ͤ̃͂ͣ̉̒̃̚͘!̴̘̟͕̝̬̪͚̥͛ͨͭ́̾͘̕͟  
> ̎ͩ͛ͧ̒҉͖͍̟̯̖̫͕̣̮̮ͅWͨ͊ͫͪ̀̇͑͊̏̒̽̌̆̌ͭ҉̸̢͕̗̱̣̬̠̤͈͢͞ȁ̶̡̬̣͚̤͍̭͉͎̘̳̪͈̘̘̯̗̥̯̽ͤ̌̂̑ͮ͆ͩͫ̾ͮ̚͘k̸̷̨̯͉͓͖͎̳̦̭͚͈̻̥̰̯̖̂̃͒̂ͤ̆ͮ͐̈͊̇̒̋͂̔̈́͞e̶̙̜̯͙͈̰̞̥̗̮̲͍̣̘̪̮̻ͤ̔̊̌͒͛͂̈́̈̒ͬͣͤ̒̇́͛̕ ̣̱͖̮̬̫̭̪̝͙̭̭̘̼̪̰̾̑͌ͫ͆̃ͤ̐̾͒ͤ̿ͤͯͫͥ̕͟͝͞ű̝̬͉̬̙̙̙̙͚͖̻̜̩̐̎͋͌̓͜͠p̸̧̧̻̺͇̳̒ͦ͒̔͛̂ͫ͑͜͠ͅ!̧̨̩̝̬͉̖͓̩̥͎̲̳̜͈͚̃ͨ̀̊̓ͭͧ͟ͅ  
> ̋̓̋ͣ̔ͬͪ̉̑͛̄̇̊̋͂͋͒̕͡҉̸̲̠̺̩̠͈͇̫̜̜̥̭͚͠ͅC̶̵̢̰̗͈̠̜̞̱̐ͥ̋̋̌̍̄a̡̻̼̝̥̹͖̋ͯ̇ͩ̎̓̍̎͘ͅr̷͗̐͛͠҉̜̭̝̺͍̬̗̝͚̙͉͜į̴͈͇̬̺̞̲̹̞̠̳̫͖̬̥̻̭͉̝͋ͫ̐̑͒̎͋͛͆͛̏͗̑̆̎̎̀̕͘ṋ̸̢̩̭̣̺̱͍̖̘͚͎̳̱͓̣͐͌ͣͪ̐͑͌͡a̢͈͔̭͍ͤͨ̏̿̂̆̐͑͌͌́̚͟͢!̨͔͖̠̗̭̖̭̣̞͍͔̅̓͌ͯͤ̐ͥ
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> *** but nobody came**

\--!?'s POV--

 

Pain. That was the first thing they remembered feeling as they fell in the darkness. It radiated throughout their whole being. They couldn’t feel anything other than pain everywhere. If felt as if something was being ripped out but you weren’t sure which parts were being ripped from which parts and if they were the one being rip out from something or if something was being ripped out from them. Before the pain had taken them, they had seen green. And before that were the memories of their whole life until then. 

And after the pain all that they saw was black. 

For a long while all they saw was the blackest black they had ever seen. Now even their dark bedroom at night would seem much lighter in comparison and they’d never been able to sleep with any light in it.

How long were they in the darkness? Sometimes it felt like a billion years but if they were alive it couldn’t have been that long. Unless… they weren’t alive anymore. Were they dead? They’d never believed in the afterlife but perhaps they were in some sort of purgatory? But then shouldn’t anyone be there?

They landed…? It was as if there was no place else to fall to but there was nothing under them either. They tried walking but weren’t even sure if they were going anywhere. There weren’t any landmarks so they could see where they were going.

They tried looking as themselves after getting tired of walking. It should have been the first order of business, they guessed, but they had been far too confused to realize.

…This wasn’t them. 

They were now yellow, as if it was glowing from within them, and their body shape was all wrong. As if they had become the most generic human shape as possible. They no longer had hair. Not even any defining gender characteristic. They felt naked too and they were sure they were at the very least clothed before the pain.

They felt like all had been taken from them, even their physical appearance. 

They screamed.

Silence. All there was. 

No sound.

No matter how loud they screamed.

They wanted to give up and stop existing.

But couldn’t.

It wasn’t fair.

They didn’t deserve this.

They’d been good all their lives.

It wasn’t fair.

They got used to the silence.

They didn’t try to talk or walk anymore.

They just curled in a ball and waited.

The yellow that came from her faded to gray slowly.

They didn’t know who they were inside anymore.

They didn’t even have a gender anymore. 

What did they used to be anyway? 

Was it the insanity beginning to settle in them that dictated which gender they used to be or real memories?

They started to refer themselves as they/them pronouns. 

It only made sense

It was better than clinging to whatever their mind was conjuring when they weren’t even sure of the truth anymore.

They discarded their name.

Once again, they weren’t sure if their mind wasn’t playing tricks on them.

There was no one there to talk to, anyway.

A name was unnecessary when there wasn’t anyone to call them.

They started blocking the picture their mind conjured. 

Truth or fiction didn’t matter if they brought them no solace.

…

And then sounds came. 

At first, they thought they had imagined them. They thought they had finally gone completely insane. 

But the sounds came again. As if trying to reach out to them. As if calling them.

They knew that sound. They knew that voice.

So, they couldn’t be dead.

They stood up, looked at their hands and, slowly began to re-shape them until they became their hands. At least as close as they remembered them to be. Then came their feet. Then their forearms and legs. Then their arms and thighs. Then her torso. It felt good to feel like a woman again.

She then tried to reshape her face with touch alone and that wasn’t easy. It was odd to realize that she had never paid attention to how her face had felt. All the little touches like removing a strand of hair from her face, rubbing her eyes in the morning.

When she felt she had a defined enough face she shaped her hair, every curve, every little twist. 

And then she rested. She had to be alive. She couldn’t give up. Her color changed again as she rested from the effort she’d expended. But it was still too gray to see the new color. She thought about trying to get her real colors back instead of that eerie glow but somehow the new color that was trying to emerge didn’t affect her as much as being featureless, which was odd considering the new color that she guessed was trying to come out was never her favorite.

She stood up and walked. Trying to change her colors was the least important right now. It had been some while since she'd last heard the voice and she'd spent she wasn't sure how much time just reshaping herself. She had to go back. She had to find a way back. And staying there wouldn’t help. She couldn’t give up. 

***Knowing there was someone calling out to you gives you hope.**

***It fills you with...**

***Perseverance!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit earlier than I usually post but I'm hitting a few snags in the chapter I'm currently writing and want to focus on them, as well as some work from my classes that are getting a bit behind schedule.
> 
> To all the theorist out there reading this fic...
> 
> have fun theorizing ;)


	21. Chapter 20: Prank You Prank Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans is miffed at Miranda's insistence on reading him a story. He makes Miranda pissed and she gets revenge in kind ;P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... busy week this one. Though I am still ahead a couple of chapters it doesn't help when one of your teachers decides that you have one week to make fifty analytical drawing of objects. what are those? well imagine this. you take a mug and draw it from the side. but not just any kind of drawing, oh no, my poor innocent child! Think more along the lines of Descriptive Geometry, only less precise (meaning you don't need to measure anything with a ruler but still need to come close when it comes to proportions, using only your fingers or drawing tool like painters do to measure from afar. You have to start by drawing to axis and draw the object from the front and top and them at the time you draw three axis (the vertical one, or Z as to be... well... vertical, but the other two cam be pretty much as you want them to with a couple of exceptions.) and you try to draw the object in 3D and let me tell you: it's tiring as all hell. XC
> 
> on the other end my self portrait for another class is going swimmingly. The prof told us we could used accessories for the drawing since it was inspired in a lot of 18th century self portraits and I chose my self made Sans doll. We look cute //^//w//^//. My prof liked it too.
> 
> anyway. enjoy the new chapter.
> 
> Someone wanted pranks... ⌐w⌐ ...pranks you shall have (I purposefully didn't tell you guys there would be pranks in this chapter because I know some of you would hype the heck out of it XD that was my kindness to you ^w^)

\--Sans POV--

 

He honestly didn’t know how to feel about the most recent turn of events.

At first, when he saw you in Paps bedroom, he been a bit annoyed at it. Reading to his brother had been _his_ job. It was one of the few moments he could still freely pamper his brother. He knew he was being a little selfish in his vindictiveness, but still. 

He was well aware that at times he kept his brother awake for longer that he should be because of his odd hours but part of him couldn’t help but resent that you would be reading to Paps thus day. Having you take that away from him hit him hard.

But he’d allowed it. He knew he was being selfish and in the end all that mattered was Paps happiness, so he’d allowed it.

But then you told him to hop in the bed too and he could hardly believe what he was hearing. He couldn’t help but feel a bit offended that you considered him in need of a bed time story. He was no little kid. Well… sure, Paps wasn’t either, but still!

He learned the hard way not to deny a stubborn woman for long, especially if she was Miranda. She’d sic her ‘dog’ on him. Even if her tone had been flirty as she’d approached him, it had felt like honey coating a sharp blade of ice ready to slice him up. He tried not to show how it had affected him but clearly Rajani noticed because she took the opportunity to sweep him of his feet, and not in a romantic way either.

He’d never been more embarrassed in his life.

He didn’t get to dwell on it for long, though. Though not his favorite genre, not by far, he’d still liked to hear about the struggles the Harry kid had gone through. Monsters weren’t that different when their magic started acting up. It usually happened before they had an idea of the sort of monster they wanted to become. 

More often than not they went with the same abilities their parents or siblings had in the end, but that didn’t about some erratic demonstrations of magic when they couldn’t control it. He came to learn that that was the only similarity when it came to that saga's notion of magic. 

Then the Dursleys... The thought of having the use of magic banned from him, like the Harry kid had been, still chilled him to the bones. Sans couldn’t imagine how helpless monsters would all be if they couldn’t use magic, especially while there were still monster haters everywhere.

Miranda’s voice had stumbled here and there, making it noticeable she didn’t read out loud that often but somehow it still relaxed him enough to fall asleep at some point. It had been the first time in a long time he slept through the whole night without any nightmares.

Next day he’d decided to ask Tori what the woman’s deal was and she told him the horror stories Miranda had told them all about the BOP and how he shouldn’t have been all alone in there.

Knowing she’d worked in a McDonald's once explained many things about some of the stuff she'd said. And how she knew he was being overworked. Truth was it weren’t the managers that chose to make him work alone. It was the other staff and the restaurant owner himself. The other staff refused to work with him. It seemed that only the managers were free of specieist prejudices. The owner had demanded he be kept away from serving the public lest he drive paying customers away, hence why he was mostly either flipping burgers or frying chicken, if not cleaning the garbage compacter. Even the part where they fried potatoes was off limits because it was too close to the public.

He’d known Burgerpants had tried to get a job there but had been immediately turned away. After watching the movie about the hygiene norms he could see why. They were all supposed to wear a net to cover their hairs to keep them from falling into the food and BP had hairs everywhere. It would be a nightmare to cover him whole with nets and he’d refused to shave himself, not that Sans blamed him in the least.

It was hard work and whenever someone missed work they now called him in every single time. If it were Alex the one calling him to replace, he would know for sure it was because he knew he needed to gather money and they payed extra hours. To be honest the frowning Bulgarian, that he had somehow managed to force into cracking a smile, was the only one he truly got along with in there. The other managers only cared if he did his job well and were willing to overlook his monsterhood, and lets not talk about the other workers.

Up until then Tori had been the only one knowing how hard his work really was but she’d never felt the need to baby him. Not that she hadn’t felt the urge to do so sometimes, he’d seen it in her eyes, but she knew he was an adult man. So, she put her maternal instincts aside.

Having someone close to his age suddenly reading him bed time stories was uncomfortable to say the least.

At first he’d tried to avoid her at bed time by going to his room and staying there when Paps started getting ready for bed.

Big mistake.

She and Paps had stubbornly waited for him until he came out of his room at 2am to get a glass of water and he felt immensely guilty for that. He never tried that method again.

He tried hiding her laptop to bargain with her. She hadn’t been swayed. She whipped out her cellphone and began reading the minute letters and then broke into his room while he slept in her quest for the laptop. She had to do it very silently so she took a long time to get it and the next morning she looked like a zombie, albeit a cleaner and less wounded one.

Cue the guilt trip again. Well, partially since she’d took the chance and vandalized his room by making a pile of socks on top of his bed with a whoopy cushion hiding underneath just to spite him. It only made him laugh, though.

By the forth day he gave in. Both nights he had slept as well as the first one, with no nightmares in sight, so it wasn’t all that bad. He still didn’t like it much that she was treating him like a kid but he’d find a less mean way to get revenge. 

At the fifth night he had a nightmare but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it could get, like having someone to hold onto somehow helped him get a grip on reality. They’d actually gone to bed early that day, but there he was, at 3:30am, going down the hallway to get himself a glass of water and a sleeping pill. 

That’s when he saw her with her laptop working on the Halloween project.

At first he’d thought she hadn’t gone to bed at all, but a closer look told him that she’d, in fact, gone to bed but hadn’t slept well, considering how spiky her hair was. Perhaps a nightmare, the same as he.

She’d been surprised to see him up and it was clear that she wanted him to go back to bed but didn’t feel that she could just tell him that, considering that she’d never outright stated before that the story time was so that he would go to sleep.

He sat by her side on the couch and she stopped working on the Halloween stuff since it was a client secret. She called the group they made, as they stood awake while others slept, The Midnight Crew. She then showed him a song by that name that he just loved.

And then she forced him to watch a dubbed version of a homestuck comic with her, which was sort of boring but she claimed that it got much more interesting later on.

He was surprised she didn’t ask why he was up so late. But then again it seemed that she was trying to avoid having the question being tossed right back at her.

As soon as both of them felt sleepy enough, they both went their separate ways.

With that week he came to realize that her soul seemed flicker more often, usually when she was reading to them, but even outside of that the flickering happened more and more. It was as if her soul was trying to get their color back.

He still resented being treated like a kid a bit but if it let him continue to observe what would happen to her soul he would take it. It seemed that whatever the flickering was, it was helping her soul heal. 

He had learned to see the two HP bars and still saw Miranda’s bar at 0 but her overall mood seemed much better. She was far more outgoing than she used to be, unlike in the beginning when she mostly stayed in her room.

She kept reading to him and Papyrus until the book was over and immediately began the second one. He’d been sort of fascinated with the whole alchemy thing and, with some research, he had learned that there was a time in which the Humans in Europe had attempted that. He wouldn’t know about that since monsterkind had been locked in the underground right before the Europeans had reached North America and only knew the English language because of the stuff that fell underground. 

Alchemy was fascinating but also very naïve. Then again, they didn’t have the knowledge back then to know that one couldn’t simply alchemize gold from lead. They were too different and would require some manipulation to the nuclear level to alter the number of electrons and protons that lead had to turn it into gold.

But as fascinating as it had been, Sans didn’t want to just sit there like a little kid and listen to her read. He was too used to doing the reading himself, or to being the one taking care of others instead of the other way around. So he decided to start pranking her. At first he placed whoopy cushions underneath her butt whenever she went to sit on Paps’ bed.

She seemed annoyed at that but said nothing. The pranks started progressing further and further from there.

His latest choice was the old caramel onion in a stick. Just for effect he made a caramel apple too so she wouldn’t distrust him as much.

He heard the front door open as she returned home later than usual, which was slowly becoming the norm. The fact that she somehow always had her Dusk cat with her was also norm. He immediately took a big bite from his caramel apple so that it seemed he was in the midst of eating it, looking as casual as possible.

“Hi, Sans.” She said, smiling at him politely.

“sup. we got some caramel apples today. that one’s for you.”

She looked at him doubtingly but saw that he was indeed eating a real apple and felt confident enough to take the other one.

His prank almost failed.

He’d never accounted her for a nibbler instead of a biter. As she nibbled on the caramel surrounding the onion, breaking it in bits and eating it. Without the caramel coating it would be more than obvious there was an onion underneath. When she had thinned the layer of caramel enough she finally decided on taking a bite.

He watched as she chewed a bit then she stopped.

Silence.

And then her face screwed into a tight, disgusted frown and a whole lot of sputtering ensued, making him laugh so hard he could barely breathe. By the time she was trying to wash out her tongue in the kitchen sink he was practically wheezing.

 

\--Your POV--

 

That was the last drop! You didn’t care why he decided pranking you was a good idea but offering you a caramel onion was the last drop!

You knew he didn’t like having you corner him into listening to bed time stories but this was just too much for even you to justify.

You heard him laughing behind you as you tried to spit the taste of onion from your mouth. You hadn’t thought much of his offer considering he had already been eating a caramelized apple. How wrong had you been.

You glared at him. And that only made him laugh further. You were so angry that you shoved the whole caramel onion into his mouth to shut him up. Of course you had only managed to do so because he was laughing so hard that he was tearing up and his eyes were shut tightly. Usually, having him reacting very similarly to you at having a whole onion shoved into his mouth would have made you feel better about the whole thing but you didn’t have the easiest day at work and were angry beyond reason. You had hoped to get home and just relax, looking forward to your day off you had so thoroughly and justly earned.

You had considered paying him back on several occasions and had researched on several pranking ideas but never thought to actually go through with them.

Well…

He liked pranks, didn’t he? Let’s see how he deals with them when he is not the one preforming them.

You went into your bedroom because it was still too early for story time and fired up your laptop. This was gonna get nasty pretty quick. Karma was a bitch, after all.

Since most of the preparations were complete so that you could set the pranks after he’d gone to sleep, you put on your best poker-slightly-angry face and left the room. You read the story to Papyrus and Sans, trying to remain normal looking instead of mischievous and vengeful.

It seemed they both bought your facial expression as genuine. As soon as they went to sleep you sneaked out to do some mean things to Sans. You felt half tempted to go sit on a sofa with Artemis on your lap, petting her like some sort of evil lord with their white fluffy cat. Obviously, you ignored the temptation, especially when there was vengeance to be had. Only when you had everything in order did you pet your cat. Not in an evil villain sort of way, much to your regret, because you were dead tired.

Next morning you were excited to see the first signs of your evil machinations put to the test. You tried not to seem nervous when Sans came down… well more like was dragged down, for breakfast. You’d already placed his ketchup on the table where he usually sat. It was easier to guess since he was the last to arrive anyway. 

Sans sat down, looking tired, but not as much as he had before you had started reading to him, and almost plopped his head on the scrambled eggs in front of him. He would always start the day with a long drag of ketchup before eating.

You were practically trembling in your seat with anticipation.

Finally Sans took hold of the bottle and lifted it to his teeth with no awareness of his surroundings, missing the smirk on your lips completely. He took one long gulp of the contents. 

And suddenly he was very much awake, completely blue in the face, flailing his arms and screaming. He then dashed to the sink and began guzzling water like a man that had been in the desert for three days as everyone around looked at him surprised.

“What’s the matter, Sans? Are you feeling a bit _hot_ under the collar?” You asked casually and he turned back to glare at you, only to go back to drink some more water.

You finally broke your stoic face and burst laughing at his current plight.

“You should have thought of your actions before you decided to trick me into eating an onion thinking it was a caramel apple. And Karma always comes back ten times fold, doesn’t it?”

He grumbled something unintelligent as the others finally understood what was going on and laughed as well.

“What did you even put on the ketchup, punk.” Undyne asked.

“A sauce made from California Reaper peppers. It’s the spiciest pepper in existence.”

“Whoa! Now I know not to trick you into eating an onion. I’ve tried some of the spicy sauces in the minimarket as a challenge and I couldn’t do it. Can’t imagine how he is feeling.”

“He’ll be fine.” You stood up and grabbed a cup you had previously filled with olive oil and handed it to the distressed skeleton.

“The spice doesn’t dissolve on water. It dissolves on oil. If you want to wash it down, you should do it with oil based ingredients.” You told him.

He eyes you warily but took the cup and knocked it back, frowning a bit at the taste of it. It seemed to have worked because he took a few more glasses of the stuff before finally relaxing and flopping on the floor looking exhausted, panting and still blue on the face.

“not… funny…” He said between wheezes.

“Well, eating a disgusting onion isn’t either, considering how sensitive my tongue is. I don’t do well with most spices and eating raw onions and garlic. Which you should have at least asked before executing such prank.” You chided him smugly as he continued to glare. 

Unbeknownst to him, this was just the beginning.

He then went into his room. The fact that he had been directly dragged down by papyrus meant he had slept there the whole night and missed a few other pranks you had in store.

Now, one of the surprises demanded that he actually opened his door instead of teleporting inside his room which, because he was so flustered with all of what had happened, was exactly what he actually did. You silently waited and this time everyone on the table noticed your enthusiastic expression and waited along with you. 

You heard the handle of his door being turned…

…

FWOOOOOOOOOMP!!!!!

“aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

You burst laughing as the air horn scared sans to death and you distinctly heard his bony behind hit the floor. The others also started laughing at what they heard, though they were a bit startled by the air horn. Damn, were air horns loud!

It had taken you a long time to make sure the air horn was properly aligned with the handle so that it would hit it dead center when you couldn’t exactly test it.

But that wasn’t even your final form.

You heard him grumbling a bit and then more silence.

Suddenly he was in the kitchen again with a balloon in his hand.

“ok, where are my socks and why did you put so many balloons in my room?”

You giggled, took your fork and poked the balloon with it. It popped and a sock fell down.

“Aside from the one you unknowingly brought down, the other socks are all in your room.”

He looked blankly at the sock and colorful remains of the balloon. You had chosen really opaque ones so it was no surprise he hadn’t noticed the sock was there.

“how did you even put it inside a balloon!?” He seemed to be calming down from his initial rage and was more curious by now.

“Practice.” You said wagging your eyebrows.

That was when he finally started laughing.

“i gotta admit, kid. you got me pretty good.” He said when he finally stopped laughing.

“When I do it, I do it right!”

“you know this means payback, right?”

“I’m going to ask if you’re really sure you want to go down that route. I don’t particularly like getting pranked and tasting the warm breath of a California Reaper might become the least of your problems.”

His eye socket twitched at that. 

“yeah let’s not escalate that far ever again.”

“I wasn’t the one that brought eating fowl things _to the table_. You were.”

He snorted and you realize that you did another pun. Papyrus seemed pretty annoyed at that but also seemed to realize you hadn’t meant it.

“The heck is wrong with me!? I never made these many puns without even realizing before!” Your reaction to yourself only made the small skeleton laugh harder.

You sighed and finished the last bite of your breakfast.

“I’m going out to buy some supplies. I’m in the mood to attempt baking some brownies after lunch.” You told Toriel.

“Of course, my child. Please mind your safety.”

“K.” You turned towards the kids. “Go and get ready I’ll go with you to school. The supermarket is one or two stops away from yours.”

You went to your room as well to get dressed, only to come face to face with some havoc. Someone, whom you’re pretty sure whose name starts and ends with an ‘S’, had ducked taped most of your stuff on the ceiling. The only things not taped there were your massive cardboard boxes. You realized, with a massive blush, that even your Happiness Enhancement Device was taped up there.

Oh, it was on! He would regret invading your privacy this way.

You were not sure how he’d found your personal toy underneath the bed but you were getting it down right there and then. Though you intended on locking the door and no one would see it if they respected locked doors, one would never know.

Rajani only laughed at you, though she liked being the one pranking you and still disliked Sans quite a bit.

You got dressed already plotting on a way to get him back for the most recent quandary. You looked up some more prank ideas and finally found some that were manageable. Then you found the perfect one.

You finished getting ready and finally headed out, only to see Sans in the hallway, probably waiting for a reaction out of you.

_**You should totally make a flirty remark about your vibrator. Last time I tried that he seemed weak to it.** _

_What!? No!!_

_**C’mon. What’s the worst it could happen?** _

_I’m not a flirt! I’m the most socially awkward person in existence!_

_**Well, so am I, but at least I push back when provoked.** _

_Pushing back is ok but I don’t want to flirt with him!_

_**Then I will!** _

_Raj!!_

_**What? You said you didn’t want to. So, you won’t have to.** _

“you know you are sort of gazing blankly at me creepily, right?” Sans commented, snapping you out of your inner dialogue.

“Sorry, sudden conference in my mind. Raj wanted me to try to do something I wasn’t entirely comfortable with.”

“ok. you should hurry up and _cum_ down, though. the kids are waiting. ”

_Did he really just…!!? Ok! Raj, you better be damn right about his weakness!_

“What? So soon? I was more the sort of _enjoying the ride before getting to the destination_.” You commented, trying to slur your words in a sexy fashion that probably missed it’s mark entirely. You added a sassy sway to the hips as you walked towards him, since he was closer to the stairs than you were.

You were rewarded when his cheeks turned blue. You were pretty sure by now that Sans becoming blue was the equivalent of him blushing.

The effect was ruined because you started laughing nervously. Rajani made a mental facepalm as you cracked up. You were no good at flirting with people when you weren’t serious about it. Sans only made an expression of ‘wtf!?’ as you sobered.

“Sorry about that.” You said. “Raj made me do it. You can forget it ever happened.”

“t-that was a _dick_ move. ” Sans shot back once the blue in his face lessened. It still made you snort.

Puns? Really? Well you weren’t bound to lose this one that easily.

“Really!? What are you? A _pussy_? You should be able to _give as much as you take_ , right?” Sans eyes literally glittered at your come back.

“hey, a guy has his limits. no need to be a _cunt_ about it. ”

“For someone with very low tolerance you sure like to act _cock_ -y.”

“now you’re just _milking it_ for all its worth. ”

“No need to _blow_ it out of proportion. Anyway, it was a _pleasure_ punning with you but I gotta go! My people needs me! _Boob_ -ye!”

By the time your exchange was over you were both trying your hardest to hold back your laugh and, as soon as you were far enough away you actually burst laughing and were pretty sure he did the same thing.

_**I’ve never been so disappointed in you. That was the lamest revenge ever.** _

_Shush, you! It was fun and I liked it!_

_**Yeah but he still got away with putting his hands all over your vibrator.** _

_Ew! The way you say it one would think you are implying he used it! Not the mental picture I wanted!_

_**What mental picture did you want?**_ Rajani started teasing you.

_Ha ha. Funny. How about no!_

_**It makes one wonder… How does a skeleton fu-** _

_OH MY GOD! NO! NOPE! NOPETY NOPE NOPE! I do NOT want to think about that!_

_**You can’t stop me.** _

_Ok, you do that and I’ll be forced to take drastic measures._

_**Oh really?** _

_Yep. I’ll think very loud and in accurate visual representations of all of my sexy times with Daniel._

_**Why would you torture us both with that good for nothing!!!???** _

_Because I don’t want whatever imagined skeledong you were wondering about floating in my head. Next thing we know we’ll even start wondering what Papyrus’s or Grillby’s is like and that’s just a whole bucket of nope I’m not interested in delving into, thank you very much._

_**Fiiiiiiiine! … Just for the record. Grillby’s would prolly be** _ **hot** _**as fuck.**_

_NOOOOOOOO!_

You finally settled the conversation and accompanied the kids to school as they happily chattered about a TV cartoon they watched in television and about Harry Potter. You had given the e-book to Toriel so she could read to them too, but you also noticed that, despite Toriel being the one reading to all of them, MK was spending a lot of nights with Alphys and Undyne in their bed, usually sneaking there after Toriel left the room.

Neither one of the three had said anything about the subject so far so you wouldn’t assume anything just yet. 

You said goodbye to them at the school entrance and made your way to the supermarket. You checked the ingredient list and their amounts and crossed them as you grabbed the items. You knew there was sugar in the house but you weren’t sure if it was enough since Toriel made pie at least once a week and most of you added sugar in the tea instead of honey.

You grabbed some extra things in the craft section for something extra special just for Sans.

Once you had everything you payed the cashier and checked the time. It was still a long way before lunch time and you decided to wait for MK, Frisk and Flowey to end their classes. You left a message to them on the cellphone telling them you would wait in a café.

.

>   
>  **FriskRoll sent a message at 10:15**
> 
> _U shuld go 2 Muffets. Shes just a-X from school._  
> 

.

You turned back in your heels and headed back towards the school. Indeed, hidden in a corner in the side of the street opposite from the school was a small café. You went in and perused the pastries. 

Damn, they looked gorgeous and you were feeling tempted to take one of each. You were leaning more towards the cakes and other sweet treats but decided that if you were to get one of such treats you also had to take a sandwich so as not to feel like such a sugar cube on legs.

You were surprised by the monster taking the orders and her workers. 

Spiders. All of them were spiders. 

…It was sort of cool. And Miss Muffet was so cute too. She looked like a goth loli.

You started nibbling on your croissant as you took out some sheets of paper and started sketching Alphys’ and Undyne’s manga characters. You’d had time to talk to them and had the basic idea of what you would draw in the future, but you wanted to show them how you would make them look. Alphys wanted to be represented as super cute and Undyne had agreed. Drawing the manga Undyne would be more complicated. Undyne wanted buff and strong whereas Alphys wanted some cute in there too. You decided to show the cute with some of her actions rather than in looks. Looks only went skin deep after all.

You drew everyone in accordance to the specifications that they had insisted on and inked the final lines in the sketches. You wouldn’t be able to color them because you had left your coloring pens at home instead you made several poses and expressions for each to give a taste of what would be used later on in the manga.

When you came upon Sans poses and expressions. You couldn’t help but snort, remembering your very punny conversation. If he hadn’t threatened you, you might have become somewhat reasonable friends by now. You still didn’t like that he’d touched your lady’s best friend, even if it was for the sake of a prank.

Speaking of that, you hadn’t used it in quite some time. You usually become more active just before your periods. You must be running late. You didn’t particularly worry about that fact. After all, it wasn’t like you could get pregnant out of air, considering your lack of male action aside from the platonic kind.

_**Hehe. Sans made you think of sex. So funny.** _

_Raj! That’s not why. I just remembered my vibe scepter since he touched it, that’s all._

_**Still funny.** _

Your mental conversation got interrupted by the arrival of the kids you were waiting for as they jumped you. You laughed at their antics, though you silently winced at the unexpected impact.

Muffet and her spiders were quite surprised at your relationship with the Ambassador and, upon learning that you had been the one rescuing Kid she gave you a massive discount on your meal. 

“Just a one-time deal, dearie. Ahuhuhuhu~” She said.

You returned home just in time for Toriel to finish cooking lunch which you all promptly ate. As soon as the kitchen was somehow cleared you started making your brownies, the seductive smell filling the house. You were halfway through when Sans had to leave for his four-hour shift. As soon as he left, you started preparing for his next prank and made sure to explain to everyone what you were doing and telling them to not let him know about it when he returned. 

The prank was quite simple and fast to make and, in no time, it was ready to be used. The brownies, however, once done still had to cool down, which was near torture considering how tasty they smelled.

Once cool enough you took out a vanilla ice cream you had bought and served each of them a square with a scoop. There were twelve squares in total. You wanted to give grillby one of them, which you would do as soon as you made sure that Sans was properly pranked, so you set it aside, as well as Sans share. Only one square was left and, despite Papyrus insistence, you would not be cutting it in three for the dogs. In the end they told you that, since you were the one that baked it, you deserved it more than anyone else. You did end up letting Rajani out to eat one half of it as Frisk ate the other since they seemed to like chocolate so much. 

You covered the brownie tray in aluminum foil to keep the warmth and finished setting your prank. Alphys had to go back to work but you did show Undyne the sketches you had made. She approved and snapped a few pictures to send it to Alphys who also approved. You took your dogs out with Undyne. Papyrus had some job interviews lined up that day so he would be absent most of the afternoon.

You somehow managed to dodge another Undyne-issued fight challenge by the skin of your teeth and helped her with her résumé as well as the typical mannerisms of an interview with some tactics to curb nerves and her naturally hot temper. You even suggested some jobs she could apply to. 

She revealed to you that she wished to one day join the Olympic Games but that, so far, such thing wasn’t allowed because of monsterkind’s unfair advantage over the other athletes. She told you she understood where they were coming from since some monsters did have unfair advantages and that many things would need to be changed. Until then she just wanted a job that she could hold onto. You proposed that she searched about wrestling or lucha libre since she liked fighting so much. You did tell her that, when it came to wrestling, it was rumored that most of it was staged but had yet to hear the same about lucha libre. 

She decided to give it a try at some point. The biggest vantage was that lucha libre had masks that they could wear and she could remain anonymous.

“Thanks for the help, punk. I’m going to Alphys’ computer to search some more job offers. But your next day off? This time, no excuses you are going to have to fight me!”

You merely grunted in annoyance at that and gave your full attention to your laptop, which you’d been using to show Undyne some jobs, and started working on your private projects.

“sup.” The short greeting made you jump in your seat. 

You glance at the timestamp in your computer and notice that with all your focus you hadn’t noticed it was already time for him to return from work. You stretched your back, popping it some, as you yawned.

“Welcome back. There are some brownies I made in the kitchen if you want any.”

“brownies sound like a _sweet_ deal, right about now. ” He said, going to the kitchen.

“And here I was hoping you wouldn’t want any and I would get to eat your share.”

“oh? do you have a _sweet_ tooth? ”

“Yup. And a chocolate addiction too.”

You heard the rustling of the aluminum foil and then he laughed.

“best brownies I’ve ever had.” He said as he plopped beside you on the couch with an ‘E’ cut out from brown card stock.

You laughed at that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you don't mind me making Undyne unable to stand spicy sauces but considering how hard Hotland is on her I decided that, as adventurous as she is, there are some things that shouldn't be challenged.
> 
> next chaper was one I had trouble writing and I don't like it as much but next week you'll tell me what you think.  
> see ya.


	22. Chapter 21: Rule No 2 of Business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chapter title brought to you by :  
> 
> 
> Alternative title: The Gobermouch Scobblelotcher
> 
> so, sans finally gets his brownie, they go to grillby's where he make a grim mistake, we get a quick Alphys POV so that you know where she stands in her shipping, and then we get a sassy Rajani and finally an apology.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter was sort of hard for me to write and I'm still not completely satisfied with it but maybe that is due to lack of self esteem that comes with a writers block and writing confrontation scenes when I don't even know how to handle it well (I have a stupid need of being extremely prepared for confrontation scenes before I write them, imagine OCD kind of prepared).
> 
> anyway, enjoy!

Sans seemed to truly appreciate your brown ‘E’s a lot and you couldn’t help but laugh at his fake blissed out expression.

“They are pretty good, aren’t they? But I have another one for you to try.” You went to your room and took the plastic box where you kept the remaining two brownies. 

“Here’s yours.” You said as you handed it to him.

“thanks.” He took a bite. “it’s pretty good, but i still like the other one better. aren’t you going to eat yours?”

“Already ate. This one’s for a friend. I was just waiting for you to get here to prank you before I left.”

“is it the nedd guy, or greg? i thought it was your day off.”

“It is and no, it isn’t for them. Hey, you can come with me if you want. The place is pretty relaxing and I like to chill there at lunch time in my workdays.”

“yeah sure, why not? want a shortcut?”

You felt reluctant in accepting it since you didn’t like your last experience with it very much but then again you felt too lazy to go all the way to the bus station just to wait for god knows how long.

“Ok.” You grabbed your coat and put it on so you wouldn’t get a chill if Sans landed you both outside.

“where to?”

“Do you know a place called Grillby’s?” The skeleton’s eyes sockets went so wide you feared his skull would crack. “What?”

“you’re friends with grillbs!?”

“Yup. Why?”

“funny thing. i'm friends with the guy too.”

“I do suppose that Grillbs is a _hot topic_ in every conversation, so it’s not hard to believe.” You purposefully punned this time and were rewarded with the small skeleton’s chuckle.

“no one can _hold a candle_ to him, that’s for sure. ”

“True that. I bet the ladies just _lava_ watching him _tinder_ the bar.”

“they do seem to get a bit _hot_ under the collar. ”

“I’m surprised none of them have _ashed_ him out yet.”

“that’s because he’s too _hot_ to handle. ”

You felt Rajani’s impatience within you increase.

“I have a _burning_ question, though. Shouldn’t we get going? Raj is getting a bit impatient.”

“sure.”

This time you latched onto his whole arm as he teleported, making him feel uncomfortable if the look on his face was a hint. You didn’t back off until he teleported you safely to the new location. The physical contact helped dealing with the void of everything else in between places. Once you felt grounded again you finally let go.

You were just in front of the building and it seemed that a lot of regulars were there that night. As soon as you crossed the entryway most of the crowd cheered Sans’ arrival. As he was busy replying to the crowd, you quickly made your way to the bar. You had learned quite fast that one of the stools had a whoopee cushion in it so you tended to avoid it. Now that you had learned that Sans was a regular, especially with the amount of people greeting him, you could pretty much guess where the cushion had come from. 

You moved it to the other free stool beside you and sat down. Grillby was currently absent, probably in the kitchen taking care of some orders. Some of the dog monsters that you had seen before came to greet you as Sans made his rounds. They seemed interested in the seductive smell coming from your plastic container.

Finally, Sans reached the stool you had sat in and sat next to you activating his own trap. You chuckled a bit at his accusing side glance to you.

As if called by the fart noise, Grillby reappeared from the kitchen with some orders in hand that he quickly gave to their respective costumers before heading towards you two.

“Hei, Grillby.” “heya, grillbs.” They said at the same time.

The tall fire elemental gave a nod and smiled at you both somewhat amusedly.

“I brought an offering to you.” You said pushing the plastic container towards him.

“…… Thank you……” He said taking the container. 

He opened it and took the brownie out. You swore you could see all the dog monsters around starting to salivate just like your own dogs. God, you want to pet them so much.

“…… It’s pretty good……”

“You like it!? Yes!!!” You fist bump the air above your head like some retard. “So how has been your work day?”

“…… Same as usual……”

“Did any racist assholes show up again?” You ask worriedly. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence and it had happened some times before.

“……Only one but he was quick to leave……”

“Good!” You nod in agreement as you speak. “Any of them give you trouble and you know you can count on me!”

“……You do know I was a general before the barrier……” He reminded you amusedly.

“True that. And you do know that I’m not a charity case.” You shoot back and actually manage to get a crackling laugh out of him. “How’s your daughter, by the way? Has she adapted to the new school?... Has the new school adapted to her?”

“……Everything is fine, thank you for your concern……”

You notice the small skeleton staring at you too and look at him feeling a bit uncomfortable.

“What? Do I have something in my face or are you just trying to commit my face to your memory?”

“nah. i just never saw grillby interact this way with anyone other than me. he really _warmed up_ to you real fast. ”

“I guess I could say likewise in this case.” You wink at the flame elemental in a completely platonic way.

“how did this even happen? considering i‘m a regular here, and i never saw you here before.”

“Being a bit nosy for someone without a nose, aren’t you?” You commented. “Ok, you tell me how you became friends with him and I’ll tell you how we became friends. You in?”

“that’s a bit of a private thing that you’re asking.”

“As private as you putting your phalanges all over my personal joystick?” You arch a brow at him. At least he has the decency to blush and look embarrassed at that. Grillby looks curiously between you two trying to fill in the gaps on your private topic.

“i never actually touched it, you know?”

“Oh really? Then how did it get to the ceiling. Because an overpowered imaginary being in the sky deemed it so?”

“wut?”

“Religion reference and that’s beside the point.”

“oh, right! i sort of floated it?”

“Floated it.” You say cynically.

“yup. like this.”

All of a sudden, the ketchup bottle Grillby had brought for Sans started floating in front of you and you couldn’t help but look in awe.

“Sooooo cool!” You were pretty sure your eyes were shining like stars as he controlled the bottle with movements of his left hand. “Can you make me float?”

“uuuuuh…”

“Can you!!!?” You insist.

“technically i can do it but…”

“Do it!”

“kid…”

“Please!!!”

He sighed in resignation. He looked at you as if expecting you to change your mind. When he saw no hesitation, he lifted his left hand and you felt gravity shift around you as you fell to the ceiling.

“oops. used too much of it. i usually grab people by their soul and am more precise with it, but decided against it this time since that’s a battle technique and, well, souls are private.”

He lowered his hand a bit and suddenly you were floating midair.

“Whoa!” You flailed your arms trying to right yourself. “This is so cool! It’s like zero gravity. I wonder if this is what it feels like to be in a space ship.”

“i wouldn’t know.” He lowered his hand and you plopped upside down in your stool. “down you go.”

“Thank you!” You say and tackle him in a hug. “That was sooooooooooo cooooooooooooool!!!!”

Sans didn’t seem very comfortable with your sudden affection but you didn’t hug him for long.

“Did you see that, Grillbs!!? I flew! Well… floated. But still!!!”

“……I saw……” Grillby smiled warmly at you.

“So cool…” You said more to yourself feeling very giddy like a kid on Christmas.

“thanks, kid. i’m not as cool as my bro, though.” Your compliments were making him uncomfortable and flustered, which was interesting to say the least.

You smiled as wide as a Cheshire cat.

“What, Sansy? Can’t take a compliment? Why, ain’t that cute! Makes me wanna pinch your lil round cheeks with how adorkable you are!” You ‘squee’d at him doing your best impression of one of those overly touchy feely aunts.

“cut it out, pal.” Sans warned you with an irate tone in his voice, but he was still blue in the cheeks.

“So adorable. Look at this magnificent blue blush, Grillby. Ain’t it just darling?” Grillby only chuckled at your antics as his friend became even more uncomfortable.

“stop.”

“Why?” You pouted at him not wanting to take it too far.

“just, stop.” He seemed to be beyond words right there and then.

“What do I get in return?” You ask with a wide smile just to mess with him. 

You would stop anyway, since the fact that all those things were pretty much true was making you embarrassed as well… _He must never know!_

“i'll buy you a meal from grillbs.”

You smiled real wide.

“Irrelevant. Grillby doesn’t allow me to buy my meals anyway.”

“c’mon, kid. gimme a break.”

“Ok. Then stop calling me kid.” You finally concede, though Rajani begged you not, to just to make him sweat some more, of course. “I do have a name, you know? But if it makes you uncomfortable calling me by it then you can always go with Raj’s suggestion and find me a nickname.”

That seemed to make him even more uncomfortable, probably because most monsters seemed to have no imagination for naming things. Heck, MK was named Monster Kid, for crying out loud!

“ok, miranda.”

You smiled at him. You were still kind of curious at what sort of nickname he would have given you but at least he wasn’t calling you kid. It wasn’t that it bothered you much but it didn’t change that you weren’t a kid and it still was a way out for him regarding your challenge.

You sat in companionable silence as you finally decided on a quick snack before dinner and Sans got his ketchup bottle. It had escaped you that Sans seemed to be feeling conflicted about something until much later. Instead he decided to ask you about something else first while Grillby was busy serving the Dog tables.

“so… you and grillbs, huh?” He asked. 

“What about me and him?” You asked, not understanding at first.

“well… i never really saw him talking to anyone that much up until you so i'm wondering… are you two…?”

“What? Are me and him wha… Oh. OH! Oh, god no! Not to say that he isn’t attractive or anything but… Dude he is more like Ohana than anything else. No romantic feelings there.” You said and blushed in embarrassment. Sans seemed confused at the Hawaiian word but you ignored it. Instead you then calmed down and continued. “He decided I was his charity case for some reason, even if I tell him I don’t need it. Don’t know why, either. He doesn’t even let me pay for my food. It makes me a bit uncomfortable that he does it but he won’t listen to me whenever I try to argue against it.”

“that’s natural. slasher’s side of the soul has Integrity as main trait and I believe it’s natural that your side is highly affected by hers. grillbs has always been the sort of guy to want to help others and is generous to a fault. i would know.”

“You would?” he stiffened at your question.

“speaking of his charity and how you don’t need it.” He said, flat out ignoring you question and it was your turn to stiffen. “why do you keep trying to save as much money as you can and why can you only spend four thousand out of your salary when you earn much more than that?”

“How… do you know I earn much more?” You ask trying to keep calm.

“you acted weird whenever the subject came into focus so… i asked.”

“Huh. I guess I’m losing my edge when it comes to my poker face.” Panic was high within you. He was going to ask why and then he would want to know even more and you didn’t want to talk about it and you just wanted to forget what happened and it was already bad that you had to be reminded each and every single day of your miserable life because you had to make sure you had money and-… “That is none of your business, though.”

“look, if you’re in some sort of trouble i need to know.”

“I see.” You say detachedly and in a freezing tone. “Do not worry, my troubles affect no one other than myself. I don’t need your help either. I don’t need anyone’s help. And, like I said, it’s none of your business.” Before he could say anything else you quickly closed the subject. “It’ll be time for dinner soon. In fact, we might even be a bit late. We should leave.”

You stood up and waved goodbye to Grillby. He nodded in acknowledgement and you left the bar as Sans rushed to follow after you.

“hey, wait!” He said, leaving the building after you.

You stopped, but only because you wanted him to teleport you back home.

“i'm sorry for… uh… you know. i didn’t mean to pry.”

“No, you did mean to pry or else you wouldn’t have asked. You didn’t mean for me to bite your head off for asking, though. Am I right?”

“y-yeah. i was just worried since... well…”

“Of course. Just... worried.” You sighed to relieve some of you panic as he nodded. “I… understand. Lets just go back.”

You gave him absolutely no way back into that topic unless he wanted a fight and he seemed to accept the out that you were giving him. He took your hand and you teleported back.

 

\-- Alphys POV --

 

Alphys wanted nothing more than go back home, eat a hot meal and relax with her girlfriend for a bit. Working all day for the lab was tiring. Not to mention designing the personal project she had decided upon. She really needed to ask permission before going through with it, though. The thought laid heavy on her mind as she opened the mansion’s door. She had barely entered the foyer when Sans teleported in with Miranda hugging his arm tightly.

That fact immediately sparked her interest, especially when the woman hastily let go of his arm and each went their merry, hastily-separate, way. 

She and Undyne had discussed at length the potential pairings with the human woman. After some pros and cons in regards to MirandaxPapyrus (AKA Papyranda or the noodle doodle pairing), MirandaxRajani (AKA MiRaj or the mirage pairing) and MirandaxGrillby (AKA Miranby or the blazing romance pairing) the last thing she had expected was for another potential pairing to come up. She guessed the bases for that potential pairing had been there all along and she just had missed it. It wasn’t until Miranda had pranked Sans that the potential had revealed itself to her. And she’d heard their pun filled exchange in the hallway that made her glasses fog up with the heat and sparks flying in the air. Or maybe it was her own embarrassment...?

For someone pretty unassuming and innocent looking, Miranda had quite the vocabulary and taste in novels. She had to rush down the stairs as silently as possible before they noticed her eavesdropping.  
She had yet to ask Undyne about the potential pairing but she had a feeling she would approve just as much as she had the others so it really was a no brainer. 

She didn’t have time to talk to her girlfriend before dinner, but she did take the time to observe the two of them interact. She still preferred Papyranda of the original pairings somewhat, but only because she hadn’t witnessed much of the other interactions. She did like to wonder about the Miranby and MiRaj pairings, though.

Perhaps the MiRaj one was a bit of a stretch since they referred to each other as sisters but it still had potential. She’d considered pairing Miranda with Mettaton but… Alphys just wasn’t feeling the sparks there.

As for Miranby, well… Alphys didn’t really know Grillby and couldn’t know for sure how much chemistry they had together. She supposed that, if he was indeed the sort of person that doesn’t talk much, yet felt comfortable enough with Miranda to hold lengthy conversations, then there must be something there for sure. And Alphys wanted to see more but wasn’t sure how to approach the subject with her.

Papyranda was by far the best choice of pairings to go with. They were so cute together. Papyrus cheerfulness, optimism and active personality made a reasonably positive contrast with Miranda’s more serious side and generally loner nature. He made her get out of her room more often and she was capable of teaching him about the world without being overly blunt or rude about it.

When it came to Papyranda, Alphys thought of the ship as vanilla and fluff all around. But ever since she’d seen Miranda’s purple vibrator, Alphys knew that Miranda wasn’t as innocent as she’d first believed. Who would have assumed such a baby-faced woman, that was mostly quiet and unassuming, had actually a pervy side?

And now that Sans was on the picture? Alphys could just feel the sparks flying when the two exchanged sexual puns! That ship actually had potential. Not that Papyranda hadn’t its own potential too. But the sexual tension!!!

Now that she thought about it… WOULD THERE BE A LOVE TRIANGLE!?!?!? Two brothers fighting for the attention of the girl as she was unable to decide which she really loved. Oh, the possibilities!!!

Alphys reigned herself in. It would do no good to internally ship a love triangle without her girlfriend in on it. Even the ultra secret fantasy she had of a threesome with herself, Undyne and the human woman!

… you plead the fifth...

But the way Miranda was clinging to Sans as they arrived via teleportation and how they’d immediately let go as if they were too embarrassed to stand being near each other…

But then again she already liked Papyranda so much too.

And she hadn’t even come up with a pairing name for the SansxMiranda ship.

And she also sort of liked Papyton too, Mettaton's and Papyrus' ship.

With a wistful sigh, Alphys finally took her mind out of **La La Land: Shipping Edition** and back into other pressing issues. Namely her need to clear some things with Miranda before proceeding with her personal project.

As they ate, Alphys quietly talked with Undyne and Asgore about her work but couldn’t help but notice that Sans was acting odd. And so was Miranda… sort of…

Despite being curious about it, she didn’t feel confident enough to pry and chose to ignore the two of them…

For now!

After dinner, Alphys joined Undyne in their bedroom. They wouldn’t have much time to go about their relationship discussion group activities before MK joined them so they had to be fast.

“U-Undyne. H-have you noticed anything going on between Miranda and Sans?” She still stuttered when talking to Undyne, a fact she hated even if the fish monster told her it was ok.

“You mean, aside from the pranks? Not really. I know he volunteered to take her to Grillby’s to deliver her brownie. Why?”

“W-welll…” Alphys recounted all the details of the conversation she’d heard, even if she blushed and stuttered further at the language used. Undyne merely laughed at the whole thing, though she was confused what had made the skeleton start using sexual puns. That is, until Alphys proposed her theory it was related to Miranda's purple sex toy... only to realise that she hadn't told that detail to her yet.

“OH GOD! THAT IS GOLD! I wish you’d recorded it. We could blackmail the punks into kissing or something!”

“O-OH! You’re right!” Alphys suddenly realized and couldn’t help but feel disappointed about it.

“By the way, you mentioned a new personal project you were going to do. Wanna tell me more about it?”

“W-well…”

But before she could explain her concept MK peeked into their room, ceasing all adult talk.

“Can I sleep here tonight?” He asked uncharacteristically shy.

Alphys knew he was ashamed of his nightmares. All he ever wanted was to show Undyne, the monster he admired most, his strong side. And having nightmares and crying made him feel weak. Alphys and Undyne had a hard time convincing him to join them until he was better. Alphys and Undyne had researched about his condition and were slowly helping him return to normal. 

As far as they could see, MK’s trauma wouldn’t become a disorder since he was already showing a big improvement. No one in the household felt safe taking him to a psychologist, though. Not when they were all humans and would require alone time with him. They had learned that some of them were quite racist and took advantage of their practice to make monsters with mental illnesses feel worse.

...

They dealt with it legally.

They still didn't trust some to still do it despite all.

They tucked MK in-between them.

Alphys missed having Undyne all to herself but couldn’t deny she enjoyed the company of the kid as well. She thought back to Undyne’s suggestion of adopting Kid. Part of her felt that she was the sort of monster that wouldn’t make a good mom. Not just because of her job either. She, herself, was messed up and suffering from anxiety. What sort of example would she set for him?

Still, she couldn’t deny that part of her really wanted that.

She fell asleep hugging MK with one arm and holding Undyne’s hand with her free one.

 

\-- Your POV --

 

 _I overreacted._ You said feeling the guilt of lashing out at Sans as a heaviness on your stomach.

_**No, you didn’t! He had no business asking about us! I knew that guy couldn’t be trusted!** _

_Raj! He was just worried! I would be too if I found out someone I know had to pay the amount of money we pay each month for unknown reasons!_

_**Doesn’t change what he did.** _

_Well, at least he asked us about it instead of going off on his own to research about our past._

_**Only after he already cornered one of your coworkers and badgered them about it to know how much we did earn. Who was stupid enough to even give him the value!?** _

_Raj! He was just worried! He noticed we weren’t being completely honest. It is true that he should have asked us, but still… His heart was in the right place._

_**He doesn’t have a heart. He’s a skeleton!** _

_His soul, then!_

_**You’re just dead set on forgiving him, aren’t you? Just like you forgave Daniel all the time.** _

_Do not bring him into this!_

_**Why not? He used to step all over your boundaries and then you argued and he always made you out to be the bad one in the fight just because you won most of the time. He always gave excuses for what he did and somehow you forgave him every single time as you secretly felt like he might have been right after all!** _

_Raj!!!_

_**I’m just so sick and tired of you forgiving everyone all the time. Didn’t your relationship with Daniel teach you anything!? You should NOT forgive people when they wrong you this way. They have to earn their forgiveness. You just sit there all angelic and forgive them and then they’ll all just trample all over you just like Daniel did!** _

_SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!_

_**…!?** _

_I know! You think I don’t know all that!? I’m not saying that Sans had any right to do what he did! He didn’t! But I’m also mature enough to recognize that this time he was just worried about what it might mean for everyone involved and that, even if that wasn’t the case, getting upset like some daycare child on a tantrum like you won’t solve jack shit!_

You were both in tactical silence, Rajani because she didn’t know what more to say and you just to give her a chance to say anything.

Then a knock came. It was probably Papyrus coming to get you for your bed time story reading. It was a bit soon but you wouldn’t complain. You weren’t sure if you could do it and not look like crap, though. Still you forced a small smile on your lips and opened the door… only to see Sans there instead.

You immediately got rid of your fake smile. No need to pretend to be cheery if Papyrus wasn’t around.

“What?” You bark out much more sharply than you had intended, considering you had just talked to Rajani about forgiving him.

He flinched at your tone but didn’t back away.

“look, i'm sorry. i know i already said it but…”

Yeah, the mood was awkward. It seemed that Sans wasn’t used to apologize so much. It was clear it was up to you to take charge and deal with the subject.

“You crossed my boundaries and disrespected my privacy, Sans. While I understand that you only did so out of worry, it doesn’t change the fact that you meddled where I don’t want anyone to meddle. You agree with me on this much?” the last sentence was more phrased like a statement than a question.

“yea-”

“You also agree that if the situation was reversed you would have acted the same as me, if not worse, considering your tendency to threaten people you don’t know, don’t you?”

He nodded this time.

“So you’ll understand that, even if I forgive your meddling, I will still resent it very much unless you give in to a certain condition to let bygones be bygones, right?”

“ok- wait, what?”

“You know something about me I don’t want people to know. I don’t like that. It puts me at a disadvantage. So…” You finally say and your unwavering gaze seems to make the Skeleton monster feel uneasy. “If you really want bygones to really be bygones you will tell me a secret only you know to make it up to me and be grateful I’m letting you choose which one, so long as it bears the same weight! That way we’ll both be on equal grounding.”

Well, technically you couldn’t choose which secret he should tell even if you wanted to because you didn’t know him that well yet but there was no need to lampshade that fact in your conversation.

“kid… i… er… i don’t really feel comfortable-”

“Then you can fuck off to wherever until Papyrus requests for his bedtime stories. Have a not so nice evening and fuck you very much!”

 _ **I changed my mind, I’m so proud of you!**_ Rajani said in response to your dismissal.

You went to slam your door closed but Sans tried to stop you, making you slam the door in his hand instead. He grunted lamely before collapsing to his knees as if trying to hold back a whole string of swears and curses, and also not so polite comments.

“Oh, for the love of-!” _**Take that, asshole!** Raj! That’s mean!_

You widen the gap to free his hand and, as he cradles it in his other one, you finally decide not to close the door on him, despite Rajani’s many protests.

“You ok?” You ask feeling too drained to form a proper sentence.

He only grunted some more, shaking his hurt hand in an attempt to relieve the pain some. With a resigned sigh, you took it and began massaging it.

Massaging bone was odd, to say the least. While you had always been a natural at finding the right pressure points even with no training what so ever, you had never thought to do it on bones themselves. It seemed to help, though, so you were probably doing it right.

In fact, it seemed the short skeleton had liked it so much that, before you knew it, he was leaning his head on the shoulder closest to him.

“Uuuh. Dude? You are not going to fall asleep on me, are you?” You ask feeling uncomfortable with his closeness, especially considering you were still pretty angry at his nosing about in your financial affairs.

“… you’re right. if it had been the other way around i wouldn’t have liked it one bit. probably would do much worse.<7span>” Sans sleepily admitted to you and you paused in your inner complaints at having him on top of you. “you said anything, right? so… here goes. i… well, this is embarrassing… i sort of feel like you replaced my place as story teller and resent it a little even though i act like i couldn’t care less.”

“…That’s the secret you go with!?” You say barely able to believe it. It was completely ridiculous compared to your far more serious secret.

“well… it’s sort of why i started pranking you…” He admitted. “ok, i know it sounds silly but there’s not many ways I can still take care of my brother since he is all grown up and i’m pretty sure that one day even story time will come to an end and he’ll want his own place and all that so i want to take care of him for as long as i can. i haven’t even been able to get a second job to support us aside from mcdonalds so yeah… i'm pretty useless right now.”

_**Man, this guy’s got issues. That doesn’t excuse nosing about our business and suspecting your redirected income, though.** _

_SHUSH! I’m handling this shit right now, not you! I’m still pissed at you! Go away!_

You felt Rajani flinch a bit at your tone but going away none the less, though you felt an undercurrent of tantrum coming off from her. She knew she had messed up when she mentioned Daniel and kept ramming the same subject onto you as an argument. You knew why she did that and she wasn’t wrong that you used to forgive Daniel way too easily. Sophie too, for that matter. But she forgot that you aren’t the same nice sweet girl you used to be. As much as your nature demands that you be understanding towards others you are now far too bitter to be that girl ever again. 

But just because you understood where she was coming from with those words didn’t deny the hurtfulness of them and how they affected you and that she should still apologize. She wouldn’t, though, because she believed she was right through and through. The only chance was for both of you to calm down in separate for a bit before going for take two.

Dismissing any thoughts regarding Rajani, you focused on the skeleton collapsed on top of you.

You sighed to dispel any bad feelings you had within you since they wouldn’t help you in this situation.

“Look… That secret is crappy to boot. But! I understand you getting worried that I’m paying off mobsters of something and that they might come after me for some reason. That’s not the case, though. Whatever I’m doing with that money is still none of your business, but also it won’t affect anyone other than me so there’s no need to worry, ok?”

“huh!? mobsters would target us?” He asked seeming confused.

“Uh… Wasn’t that why you were worried?”

“never really crossed my mind to think we would be at risk to be honest. …i was more worried about you.” Sans admitted and you blinked in genuine confusion.

“… Why?…” You asked.

“why what?” His voice of definitely a bit sleepy. Was he the sort of person that worries to a fault internally and that when he finally lets it out he crashes? It seemed that way.

“Why would you worry about me?”

He finally seemed to process your sincere perplexity and backed off enough to see your face.

“why not?”

“Because I’m nothing to you.”

“what!?”

“Well, it’s true! I’m not family or friend or anything and you hardly know me at all. I mean, what do you even know about me? And it’s not like I’m trying to breach the distance either, quite the opposite. So, why do you care? Why does anyone care? I don’t understand. Grillby took care of me just because I saved Kid but aside from that there’s no reason why he would want me to stick around and yet he does. Undyne and the royal family took me in because I was part of Kid’s trial but there was no need for either of them worry about my living arrangements and comfort while I stay here since I’m bound to leave this place once the trials are done and yet I have Asgore offering me to let me stay after all is said and done until I get a stable home, though I can’t do that, I have Toriel refusing to let me pay any expenses while I stay here though she could use any extra help and I have Undyne wanting to train me to be stronger because I could use that strength to stay alive in the future. Mettaton and Alphys are nice to me though I know that strangers make Alphys nervous and Mettaton has plenty of work to keep him busy and fans that would be far more beneficial than me and yet Alphys goes out of her way to talk to me and invite me to anime night and Mettaton let me stay at his place before. Papyrus I get. He is just genuinely nice to everyone. But you don’t even like me so I don’t understand.”

Perhaps that had been weighing on you all this time and you hadn’t noticed. You do have the tendency to squeeze your feelings into a tight ball and lock them away. They were all the part of you that didn’t want to accept their kindness and kept expecting the other shoe to drop and tear everything apart. It was harder and harder to just remain as casual friends to most everyone in that house, the kind of friend that could look back fondly on the memories but would be largely unaffected from the separation. Rajani had given you the OK to befriend them but you yourself had been reluctant to go too far in, just the same as she.

And yet they all kept of pushing at your walls without even realizing. Perhaps the reason you had gotten angry so fast and been so ready to forgive Sans even faster was because he had somehow betrayed a little of your flimsy trust by snooping and because, in the end, betrayal was exactly what you wanted to happen so that you would have proof that they weren't trustworthy and evidence that you needed to keep your distance. Right now, you didn’t know what was more shameful. You getting betrayed by someone who didn’t owe any trust to you or using that as a way to unabashedly prove you right about all of them.

“whoa! whoa! whoa! calm down, kid!” Sans said now completely separated from you and looking a bit nervous at your break down. 

You weren’t crying, you wouldn’t cry so easily, but your face must have been very much expressive for him to get nervous enough to start sweating. It was either that or the shivering.

“is it really unexpected that anyone could care about you?” He asked after you regained some control over your emotions.

You decide not to say anything. You were ashamed of having let your emotions get the best out of you and you didn’t have any social clues on how to avoid further prying. Should you pass it off as joking? It wasn’t really joking material and it was too late for that anyway. Well, when in doubt just stay silent and let others get to whatever conclusions they want. Hopefully they wouldn’t pester you about your pathetic life.

That’s what you were hoping would happen with Sans but, considering his inquisitive nature, you doubted it would.

“ok, don’t even answer that.” He said after a mere second of silence. Even if you had wanted to say something you wouldn’t have been able to. “you’re right. we don’t know much about you. but regardless of how your life has been up until now, just know that now you have a lot of people who care. ok, kiddo?”

You stared dumbfounded at him. He’d just give up? He wouldn’t ask anything more? God dammit, this was making it harder for you to stay mad at him and demand a better secret.

“I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t be calling me kid or variants of that from now on.” You said blank faced. “Is that an invitation to call you cute again?”

“w-what!?” He startled and you knew you couldn’t possibly hold anymore grudges against him… so long as he didn’t snoop into your life anymore.

“So cuuuuute.” You said still blank faced and watched as he sputtered, blue in the face. 

You finally cracked a gentle smile at his embarrassment and stood up from your room floor. You then extended a hand towards him.

“Lets go. Paps is waiting for us by now.”

“o-oh!”

You pulled him up and went to the younger, but taller, skeleton’s room. He was, indeed, ready for more adventures in dark hallways with voices in the walls and petrified people. This time you sat next to Sans instead of at the foot of the bed and had him read the voices.

He was good at that, you found out. Still, reading didn’t keep him from becoming sleepy so he fell asleep while you were describing a scene.

You went to your room and made up with Rajani before falling asleep. You both admitted to your faults and friendship was established in peaceville once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah I really needed to get this confrontation out of the way. It had to happen soon enought that she still didn't felt like he owed her some trust because if it happened after then the situation would be pretty hard to recover from. And it's technically been a whole week for sans to quietly worry about her and he is too lazy to keep a good worry constantly on his mind anyway XP.


	23. Chapter 22: You Can’t Handle the Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You fight Undyne, Undyne gets a job and celebrating the job hiring doesn't go as planed... you get a cliffhanger for maximum effect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I took the chance to merge together several things I wanted to add to the story in this chapter. I'll go into depth about them in the end notes. for now enjoy.

You’d never been to court. In all your 26 years of living the closest you had ever been to one was television or your sister’s account of how it really worked in your country. To say that you were nervous when you received the notice of MK’s trial was the same as saying that it rains wet water when it rains.

But then again you couldn’t have expected for the trial date to be moved further back. The attack by the thirteen merry bunch of bakas had made the judge delay the hearing for the sake of straightening facts and weed out anything concerning Kid from all the things concerning you. 

Aside from rumors some of the men wanting to testify on what Kid’s attackers had done in exchange for a lighter sentence, not much really changed.

Dan had come to the compound several times to discuss with you any potential arguments the defendants could use against you as a witness including your mental state. You reluctantly had to inform him of your case of PTSD but that you couldn’t really show the medical file to anyone since the subject it was about was a secret due to your own safety. Fortunately, you two were alone when that was discussed so no one aside from him would know about it. He did advise you to get a copy of the files just for the judge’s eyes that you would deliver yourself by hand to ensure maximum security.

Being nervous made you more fidgety and overly giggly, which everyone noticed. Rajani was mostly unconcerned because she wouldn’t be the one doing the speaking and seemed confident you would be alright… mostly.

She promised to intervene if anything happened, at least…

You warned your workplace of the trial date to justify your absence. They took it out of your accumulated vacation days, though. You didn’t mind much because what would you have done with those anyway?

This did nothing to make you feel better. The deadline to the Halloween special was closing in and your team had yet to animate all of it. Even using the cheapest quality of animation possible it was still a lot of work to get done in one month. Any lower than the current quality and the clients might as well have hired a teenager with some fancy programs and no actual knowledge to do the work and that just wouldn’t do for your studios.

As things were, you had absolutely no margin for error and had to be extra careful so as not to waste any time. No one liked working this way but at times it was necessary. It was a rare occurrence, thankfully.

This meant, however, that even on your day off you took every chance you got to work on your laptop and exchange constant e-mails with your progress. To be honest, after another long week of getting up at dawn, working like a mule throughout the whole day, getting off of work late and finally going to bed late so you and Sans could read to Papyrus, all you really wanted right there and then was to just lay in bed and never get up ever again instead of working more on your day off.

But even that would have been fine given the current situation. Instead you got cornered by Undyne demanding that you fight with her. Most of the others were out so you had no buffer or means to escape the inevitable.

So, you weren’t surprised when Undyne dragged you to the backyard and started warm up. According to her, since you didn’t exercise that much you shouldn’t start the fight outright. By the end of it you felt that you were way past the point of ‘warm’. You were sweating so much it felt like you were melting, which was a difficult feat since you were halfway through October.

“Alright, punk! Let’s fight!” She said after a last set of stretches.

You wiped your brow with an equally as sweaty hand.

“O-Ok.” You said hesitantly.

Once again the world around you grew dark as that pull on your chest returned. You payed more attention to it. You were still dead set on learning how to draw out your soul on your own, even if none of your previous tries had bared fruit.

Your soul bloomed outside of your body, It seemed a bit brighter than the last time you saw it. Even the gray from your side of it didn’t look as grey anymore, like it had a small hint of color.  
Before you could notice anything more Undyne, with a upside down white heart with a bit of a yellow tint to it in front of her, waved her spear harshly, sending a strong gust of wind your direction. As soon as it hit your soul, it became covered in a coating of green magic like opaque nail polish over a glass sculpture.

Once the coating covered your soul completely you felt yourself get locked into position. You could still move your body. There wasn’t a bit of your body that you couldn’t move… but your soul as stuck on the same exact place, completely unmoving no matter what you did. You supposed that was why you felt locked in place even if physically you were very much free.

It was an odd situation. You knew that even if you could run away, the fact that your soul would be left behind meant that you would get hurt anyway. 

This left Rajani more than a little peeved.

_**The fuck is this!? I don’t like it. Let me take over.** _

You personally didn’t mind the locked position that much. It felt kind of natural, to be honest, which was odd, to say the least. Still, it wasn’t often that Rajani wanted to immediately take over.

_Go ahead._

You felt Rajani struggling to take over but your presence was unmovable somehow. You couldn’t focus on her struggle, though, because Undyne started throwing cyan glowing spears at you.

The first one landed at your feet like you were supposed to take it and so you did. It was just in time too, since the spears started raining on you not long after. You used the spear in your hand to bat the others away from you and your soul. You hit all of them but you hadn’t expected less. 

Once your PE teacher had decided to teach your class baseball and you were, oddly enough, a natural at batting. It was the running and pitching that you sucked at. It was good to know that being good at batting was being somewhat useful to you outside of sports.

Undyne didn’t seem that much impressed with your batting prowess, though, and kept throwing more spears at you, but now they came from all sides.

You did notice the upside down white heart in front of Undyne that was probably her soul.  
.  
.

>   
>  **“Undyne”**
> 
> **LV ⛆**
> 
> **HP 1500**
> 
> **AT 41 (10) EXP: ⛆**
> 
> **DF 21 (10)**
> 
> ***Raring for a fight.**  
> 

.  
.  
.  
For some reason, some of her stats seemed to be clouded over. Purposefully clouded over. That both surprised you and didn’t at the same time. It surprised you at how easily you had forgotten she was the leader of the royal guard in the underground. It didn’t surprise you at how she probably had some kills under her belt everything considered, like many soldiers, or even cops, now a days. You supposed she might feel ashamed of her kills. To be sure you also weren’t proud of yours and would prefer if others didn’t know about him.

You twirled around your soul, protecting it fiercely aided by the low hum of the magic within the spears to guide you to the closest one to you.

“Not bad punk! But you should attack back too!” Undyne said.

You didn’t feel comfortable attacking her with your soul out but she seemed to be waiting for you to do it, as if waiting for her turn. Odd. Flowey didn’t seem that concerned with taking turns… Then again you don’t even remember seeing Flowey’s soul either.

You dash forwards and try to trip her up by spin-kicking the back of her knees. She falters a bit but otherwise remains unmovable. You quickly return to your soul in fear of retribution.

“That was pretty weak. You don’t need to hold your punches, punk!”

*** Undyne flips her spear impatiently.**

Another volley of spears flew towards you but now there were some that glowed yellow instead of cyan. You avoided the cyan ones perfectly but when the yellows one drew near... you readied to swing… swung the provided spear… only for the yellow spear to shift midair to the opposite side to which you were swinging at and hit your soul from behind.

You gasped in pain and quickly tried to get your bearings to avoid the other spears. The yellow ones always hit you since you were too disoriented to hit them. It was a relief when it became your turn again.

**HP 2038/2058**

“That ought to get you more serious about this fight!”

It’s your turn. You decide to go for a more damaging attack though you don’t really want to hurt her. You elbow her in the stomach. It hardly affects her and she only loses 1HP. You quickly retreat back to your soul.

“Come on, punk! Where’s your PASSION?” Undyne protested the soft blow.

“But I really don’t want to hurt you.” You protested back.

“And I really don’t care! FIGHT BACK!” Undyne commanded

*** Undyne bounces impatiently.**

She sent another volley of spears with a lot more yellow ones mixed in between. This time you were ready for those, though, and managed to hit them just fine. It was a bit disorienting, still, but you powered through. Rajani was still trying to come out without quite managing to do so.

At the end of the attack your spear dissolves and the green magic around your soul cracks like old varnish in antique wooden cabinets. As soon as the green disappears Rajani quickly takes over, but has to quickly dodge a spear neither of you had any way to divert since your own was gone.

In a fit of rage at being cornered and because she felt helpless while struggling with the green magic while you fought alone, Rajani dashed forwards, soul following, and punched the tall fish woman in the face.

“HAH! That’s more like it!” Undyne replied - *** Undyne flashes a menacing smile.** \- and started tossing spears as Rajani dodged while trying to get close again.

Just as she was close Undyne makes the same motion that tossed wind at you and your soul turns green again and, immediately, Rajani is stuck back inside the soul, being forced to see you battle alone.

The problem was that now the spears were coming faster than ever and you had to make use of every flexible tendon and bendable muscle you had.

The battle went on for a lot more time. Rajani found out that she could only intervene when your soul wasn’t under the influence of Undyne’s magic, meaning that every turn where your soul was affected your attacks were weaker due to your reluctance. You also lost quite a bit of your HP fighting the fish monster. By the end of it you were both hyperventilating and in a serious need of a shower.

You were pretty sure your muscles would be killing you at the trial next day. Heck they were trying to murder you now by making you fall down with how much your legs were trembling. At least Undyne seemed satisfied so not everything was bad.

Once you were done with your shower you joined Undyne in the living room. She was eating some ice-cream, which was both understandable and odd. Despite how hot your body was from all the fighting it still was October and the weather wasn’t the best for ice-cream. You politely refused at first when she offered you one, but ended up taking it. You didn’t usually like orange flavored ice-creams, though.

As soon as you put it in your mouth you felt the popping and sizzling of magic in it as well as a feeling of peace and happiness and you could almost hear an inner voice complimenting you. The taste was also otherworldly in a very good way. All your aches from the fight disappeared too. Your surprise must have been evident on your face.

“Never had a Nice Cream before, have you, punk?”

“No. It’s pretty good. A bit startling and odd that I’m suddenly praising myself mentally.”

“That’s part of the magic, punk. It was a good way to cheer everyone on the underground, considering how bleak everything was. Surprisingly the guy who made them wasn’t very popular in the beginning but once more people gave him a chance he became popular pretty fast. He invented them just before the barrier broke, though, but that didn’t detract from his sales. He is pretty popular among monsters and humans alike, now.”

“It is pretty genius, I guess. He should patent it or something. Pretty soon psychologists will start recommending nice creams to the patients with depression or lack or self-worth and such and trying to get the recipe to make it themselves.”

“Not a bad idea, actually. I’ll suggest it to Leveret later.”

“Who’s Leveret?” You ask, curious.

“The name is actually Dayakar Leveret but he prefers using his last name since he hopes to start a family business with his nice creams. He’s the guy that makes and sells nice creams. Most people tend to forget his name and just call him the Nice Cream Guy, though. He is pretty nice himself. I’m sure he would love to meet you too.” Undyne said as she opened her recently acquired laptop to look at her e-mails. 

She hadn’t originally wanted to have one but considering most job offers required an e-mail to inform of the results of her interview she eventually decided that it was a good idea to get her own laptop instead of constantly using the house computer all the time.

“If all his nice creams are this good I would love to meet him to and buy a whole stock of it.” But you wouldn’t. You needed to save money after all. You would probably just buy one of a flavor you liked more to see how much better the nice cream version was compared to the regular ice-cream one.

You kept licking your nice cream and zapping between channels hoping to find something interesting. Your zoning out was interrupted by a cheer that was all but screamed out by you fishy pall.

“What happened?”

“THEY WANT ME!!!”

“… Who?”

She turned the screen to you and you saw the name of a local moving company on the e-mail as well as a positive response to an interview she had a week or so back. It wasn’t exactly her dream job but you had suggested for her to apply to some that weren’t and then join a gym and train there. Hopefully one day she would get her dream to go to the Olympic Games or get a job she liked more. Right now, she needed to ensure a future for her and her girlfriend.

Considering how happy she was right now you guessed your suggestion was a good one.

“Congrats! That’s very good. And the wage seems pretty nice. It’s fairly above the minimum wage and you get payed overtime too, plus tips.”

“We need to celebrate this! I’m gonna call Alphys and Papyrus and we are gonna have a WICKED PARTY!!!” She ran off to get her cellphone from her room and make those calls.

You finished your nice cream and went to your room to cuddle with your cats and work on your laptop until Toriel arrived and started preparing lunch with your help. 

Papyrus was the next one to arrive after some interviews and apparently visiting Sans at work, since his brother came with him too.

Sans hadn’t tried to meddle in your private affairs ever again since that heart to heart. He also didn’t seem to mind your small break down in front of him. In fact he’d become friendlier than before. The honest to god sort of friendlier, not the ‘my-brother-likes-this-chick-and-wants-us-to-be-palls’ way. Reading out loud to Papyrus with him was fun. He did have a way with making voices and, together with Papyrus' awed attention to the story, it made for a wonderful experience for you too. It almost countered the tiredness of going to bed late perfectly if you weren’t currently loaded with work.

Papyrus and Sans seemed curious about the basilisk and other creatures depicted on the books, wondering about any parallelisms between them and monster species. The idea that a human memory could take over another human’s body and use it, like Tom Riddle had, seemed to impact Sans in particular too, though you weren’t sure why.

You were currently on the third book. Sometimes Sans exchanged some words with you about the mechanics of how magic works in the book and his opinion on the story when neither of you is particularly busy aside from sitting on the couch. It is quite entertaining, in fact. You do like to dive deep within the lore of the stories.

Papyrus doesn’t seem to want to dive in deep into conversation about the book like his brother and prefers to enjoy it as it goes and try to guess where the story will go next. So far, he is the only person ever that doesn’t immediately hate professor Snape. According to him, despite Snape’s many flaws, if he was indeed helping Harry during his quiditch game on the first book then, surely, he couldn’t be that bad of a guy.

_Oh, poor sweet cinnamon roll. How will you react at the end of book six?…_

He did seem to notice how odd it was that Voldemort was drinking from unicorn blood and a part of him was locked inside a diary. He asked if it wouldn’t have been better if he’d taken the diary back and reunited with those memories. If it wouldn’t make him strong enough not to need to kill unicorns.

You think his reasoning was mostly linked to the fact that he didn’t want unicorns to die.

After lunch, you realized that Alphys had taken the afternoon off to celebrate with Undyne so it would literally be the whole afternoon of potential work wasted if the party was going to be a thing. Hopefully it wouldn’t go over the top, considering the kids would be joining them too.

Toriel couldn’t join you in the partying but decided to make her famous Butterscotch and Cinnamon Pie. Alphys and Papyrus went to unearth some board games they had from the underground and you went to get yours. 

You took out and old set of Jenga you hadn’t been able to play since you were a toddler and a set of Pictionary you weren’t quite sure still had all its pieces. Alphys had a game of Guess Who whose pictures of humans had been replaced with monsters or anime characters and Papyrus had a game of Monopoly.

Undyne was constantly losing at Jenga whenever it was her turn so you regretfully had to pack it right up. You were pretty sure Papyrus noticed your sadness at that since he became extra nice to you, which you had thought was impossible up until then.

Guess Who turned out to be way too easy with recognizable anime characters and monsters that had very particular features so it was put aside in no time.

Pictionary… was interesting. You had decided to form two groups with a lot of people. It was a given that Sans would be on Papyrus’ team and Alphys on Undyne’s but both teams wanted Frisk on theirs. But they insisted on taking Flowey with them so he wouldn’t get picked last and, because they also wanted MK on their team, Undyne and Alphys let Papyrus’ team have them. Sans didn’t seem to keen on it. You, of course, were on Undyne’s team.

Whenever Sans was the one drawing he always used visual puns or would get ‘too lazy to do it’. It was a riot… for those not on his team. Your team ended up winning, even with Flowey’s talent for drawing.

Monopoly was a different story. You were constantly trying to save money and only spent it when you could afford but ended up with very little property and paying everyone left and right. The only one worse than you was Sans and you were pretty sure he was purposefully trying to land in prison every single time.

You never got to finish because Undyne got too frustrated and flipped the table in a very literal sense.

Frisk had a surprise, however. Apparently, a school mate had lent him a game for the PC called Life is Strange. You knew somewhat the premise of the game but, due to The Game Theorist video about it, you also knew the very last choice in it.

The kids played it alright but the grownups soon became tired of just watching. Undyne was the one suggesting Truth or Dare. You didn’t particularly like the game so you imposed some rules, which included no sexual or erotic suggestions for the dares. Hugging and kissing was as far as you would allow and even then just quick smooches unless the person doing the dare chose otherwise.

After a decisive game of picking the straw, Papyrus was the one to start the game. He didn’t really know the game either so you all had to explain to him the rules. He chose Undyne first and she picked dare so he dared her to serenade Alphys with the corniest love song she knew.

It was clear Undyne had hoped for a more physically challenging dare and that being all mushy publicly embarrassed her some. Still she powered through it and immediately picked you.

You chose truth.

“Ok punk! I want you to tell us who do you like!”

“In what sense, friendship or romance?” You shot back.

“Romance.”

“No one.”

“Really!?”

“Yup, this heart is a barren desert.”

“I don’t believe ya, punk! You have to same someone you like! Not even a small little crush?”

“Not really. I do have passing thoughts on other people’s appearance but nothing that qualifies as such.”

“… Ok…”

This made it your turn and you chose Alphys who picked a dare. You dared her to call a random number and tell the person who picked up that Undyne was the sexiest fish ever and that she was all hers.

She asked to change it to Truth and you took pity on her.

“Ok, for a truth… what was your first crush in the history of ever.”

“H-hum… er… w-well… i-i-ii—it wa-a-as… erm. I d-don’t r-really rem-m-m-member. I-i-i-I think i-t-t was the r-royal s-sientist bef-f-fore me. Hh-h-he did ins-s-s-spire m-me to per-s-sue science…”

Alphys turned towards Sans who said he didn’t care which and that she could choose for him. She decided on dare for him and told him to dress in one of your skirts or dresses. When he refused to move, Undyne got pissed off and when and get him a skirt herself. She ended up forcefully shoving it up to his hips and forced a very flustered skeleton to take his shorts out so that all he would have on was a skirt and whatever underwear he had at the time.

He chose Papyrus who picked truth.

“ok, paps. why are you so cool?”

“WOWIE, BROTHER. YOU ACTUALLY CHOSE A GOOD ONE IN THE SENSE THAT THERE IS NO TRUE ANSWER TO THAT.”

With that the circle was complete and an order established.

This time Papyrus targeted Alphys.

As the game went on you started noticing some patterns but the one that interested you most was how both Undyne and Alphys had a tendency to pick you alternately on each turn around the circle. If Undyne picked you that turn, Alphys picked someone else and vice versa. The other thing was they always asked romance related stuff when you said truth and tried to get you to do cuddly stuff with both skeletons if you picked dare. You stopped picking dare once you realized what they were planning and before they asked you to kiss one of them.

You were honestly starting to get a bit bothered with their prying.

So far they asked you what you what you liked in a potential romantic partner -you weren’t concerned with getting one but you assumed his personality was the most important-, made you hug Papyrus for fifteen seconds -you both took it as innocently as it should be taken-, asked you about the first person you ever liked -a kid in your first and second grade that you had an unhealthy obsession about, even though he called you stupid when he learned of your affection towards him-, dared you to sit on Sans lap until your turn on the next round -it was an embarrassing moment for both but most especially for him, it only got awkward for you whenever you had to make yourself comfortable since he had some pokey bits-, asked you about what you liked about your first love -you told them you seemed to have a sort of _megane_ fetish at the time since both him and your next two crushes all had glasses, but mostly you just liked him in the whole-, asked you about what other kinks you may have aside from glasses -you enlightened them that the glasses thing wasn’t a kink, just some sort of affinity that wasn’t even valid anymore and that you weren’t comfortable sharing such information-, they instead dared you to sit in front of Papyrus and look into his eyes without blinking for half a minute, which was when you started noticing the fixation they both had-, among other odds and bits about past and present potential romantic relationships.

And then, after a lot of turns with you picking truth, Undyne asked why your last relationship ended...

…

“T-that… is not a good story.” You said darkly.

“C’mon punk. No one is going to judge ya here! Did you guys have a fight?”

“Hehe. A fight… I guess it could be considered that…”

“… D-did he h-hurt you? W-w-was he ab-b-b-busive?” Alphys asked after you failed to elaborate, not letting the subject drop.

“He never laid hand on me. I was fine- FINE!? YOU ALMOST DIED BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DID!!!” Rajani quickly took over, tired of your bullshit.

She was tired of hearing you excuse him and this was still a sore subject for both of you, even after all this time. She hadn’t even noticed she had taken over and voiced her anger out loud until you both noticed everyone, kids included, looking at you.

“Please don’t mind Rajani’s outburst, she was being overly dramatic- It’s not being overly dramatic when I found you cutting your wrists with a broken bottle!- Raj! Not now!- I’m sick and tired of you making excuses for him! He had no right to do what he did! Neither of them had!- This is not something I want to discuss right now!- Whatever! Screw your life, as always! Never mind the fact that you are important to me, the bullshit that asshole said about you bears much more weight to you than whatever I have to say!- RAJANI! NOT NOW!” You both fell silent as each of you composed yourselves.

One glance at the people around you and you saw that you would have to explain to them what you both were talking about. They clearly weren’t about to drop the subject when Rajani was mentioning suicide attempts.

God, you really didn’t want to do this right now!

“… Miranda… what did he do?” Undyne said quietly. The fact that she was using your actual name instead of calling you punk only served to cement that you couldn’t escape talking about this now.

“… It’s a long story. Do you really want to know?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, for undyne's fight i decided to make her soul with the core trait of justice. I mean, her non-genocidal theme song _is_ SPEAR OF JUSTICE, am I right? I decided to only lock the soul in place instead of the feet like most people write. It made more sense to me. As for the spear, usually the one closest to you in green mode is colored red, indicating it's the closes. I replaced that with the humming sound of magic as a wait to realize which is closest. Yellow spears only come to further justify why I made Undyne's soul one of justice. Whe frisks soul (on the game) goes back to red, undyne trows one last spear that the player actually had to dodge hence why i made the spear undyne gave Mir to dissolve and Raj had to dodge last minute. (yes, I'm a big nerd who watched the battle several times as research to make sure I can give you an amusing fight.
> 
> So I gave the Nice Cream Guy a name. I hope you find my naming skills top notch since both names have a meaning to them.
> 
> so, one of the things I wanted to happen was for Undyne to get a job (done) - the reasons are obvious  
> another on my list was having Frisk play Life is Strange (not quite done, we will have some more of that later) - because the protagonist of Life is Strange has the same hairstyle as Frisk and has time powers, but also because I want to use this theory right here in that later chapter (see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoinS21NcPY&t=1s )
> 
> next chapter is still a hard subject for me and the whole reason I started writing this fanfic as a way to come with my loss. it is a very convoluted story and all I can say is that it hits most of the stereotypical bad mexican soap opera gimmicks with the exception of secret evil twins and someone being an orphan. I'm hoping that after finally getting it out I will be able to fully move on from what happen and continue to write my story without feeling such sadness. I finally feel ready.  
> sorry for the cliffhanger, though.


	24. Chapter 23: Your Love, His LOVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda tells what happened six years ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Depiction of poor mental state and suicide attempts.
> 
> this was what had prompted me to start writing this fanfic. In the story I made my friend survive instead of die and gave her a new life, a life she never got to have. I apologize if some of the writing seems a bit off when referring to Rajani but it's hard to translate and change something that really happened into fiction. Please bear with me. I you didn't understand something please tell me in the comment section. I'll try to explain.
> 
> I put some of what **really** happened in the ending notes

Love had always been serious business to you even while you were experiencing your first love. 

Admittedly, that first time you had been close to obsessed with the guy, or as obsessed as a six-year-old could be with her childhood friend. Moving away had been harsh on you and you had a hard time letting go of your feelings for him.

Eventually you gave up on hoping to see him again and your opened up to other crushes.

…

But it was hard.

Your male classmates were assholes and, even if you were treated as if below the level of a cockroach, you refused to lower your standards to include any of them. As desperate as you were to be loved, you were even then smart enough to know that going into a relationship with someone who didn’t respect you, just to deceive your lonely heart into believing you were happy, would only hurt you more in the long run.

That being said, your standards had lowered enough that having a guy showing you a little bit of kindness and proceeding to ignore you was the most gentlemanly thing ever. That, in fact, was how you got your third crush. Pathetic, when you looked back on it. You never confessed to any of them. Not after how your first love called you stupid after someone you considered a friend told him. It was a good thing too. You probably would have been the laughing stock of the class for even considering confessing your feelings.

And then a guy in your small group of friends confessed to you and all of your friends insisted you were a match made in heaven. By then you had given up crushes since you realized that being in love and having a crush were completely different things. Love meant actually knowing the person while a crush was being in love with your idea of the person instead of their real self. So, you wondered if you could actually be in love with him but not know it yet.

By then you and Rajani were already separate beings and she advised you not to do it.

But like any stupid teenage girl starved of love you ignored her. You learned that the infamous friendzone existed for a reason. Some matches weren’t meant to be and forcing them just because they were your OTP ended up hurting people.

Looking back, you really didn’t have much in common with him to begin with. How pathetic were you? The only thing you learned from that experience was that you should never let others talk you into dating someone, especially if that someone was in love with you, if you didn’t feel the same.

That group of friends hated you for breaking up with the guy. All things considered you were only friends with one of the girls and everyone else was just friends with her that tolerated you.

**I wasn’t your fucking fault, though. They had talked you into it and then got pissy because you realized you made a mistake! Never mind that by the end you were forcing yourself so much that you had constant arguments with the guy over nothing and you weren’t even sure why! When you realized that you were taking out your frustration of not feeling the same on him, that was when you decided that you both would be better off not being together.**

**The assholes hadn’t seen it the same way though. It was better if both of you continued to make each other miserable so long as their friend got to have you as a girlfriend, after all. Pathetic beasts, all of them.**

Sophie was the only one to remain your friend, **or so you thought**. She understood why you had done it and remained as friendly as ever. **Until she entered college, that is.**

**She made new and much cooler friends. And while you made sure to invite her to the few parties you attended in your university, she never gave you the same courtesy and only talked to you again when she and her boyfriend broke up and she needed a true friend instead of all the fake ones around her.**

But you are getting ahead of yourself. Though she plays an important role later, you skipped over how you met Daniel. 

Rewinding a bit.

You had gone to a different high school from Sophie. She remained in the same school and you went to the school your mother worked at which drew the bullying to a stop. **Not to say there weren’t any idiotic boys there either, they were just a minority in your art classes and you had grown a thick skin so their assholishness didn’t bother you much.**

Then one of the few friends you made at that school introduced you to Daniel just because you both had stories you wanted to write and spent recess drawing your characters and so on. To be honest, Daniel’s drawings had to improve a whole lot but you could recognize someone who needed incentive and you did so. He had many ideas for stories for his characters.

**You later came to realize that most of those ideas came from series he watched which would include a lot of copyright infringement. When you pointed it out he stubbornly insisted that he hadn’t been thinking of those series while he wrote it and only considered changing a few things when someone else pointed it out too. Clearly, he had no respect for your opinion, but you hadn’t thought much of it at the time.**

Admittedly, he had shown some aloofness towards things you valued. At the time, you didn’t know how to work with Photoshop and asked him to take some of your drawings and photoshop them for your book. He took three years for seventeen small images that fitted your palm. Now that you knew Photoshop you knew for a fact that the things you requested of him could have easily been done in two days, three tops.

Still, you were unaware of it back then but still knew enough that you knew he was taking way to long, always using the excuse that he had his own stuff to make… **in which he procrastinated a whole lot too.** You spend hours talking to each other and had so many things in common. People around started shipping you two. This time you resisted, not wanting to make the same mistake again. However this time the line wasn’t so clearly drawn, considering you were pretty emotionally close with Daniel, something you hadn’t been with your previous boyfriend.

When he confessed that he loved you, you told him all your previous plights and both of you decided to go slow. All you asked in return was for him to tell you if it wasn’t working out for him and you would do the same. If he fell in love with someone else, he should also tell you right away to avoid cheating and you would do the same.

**But he was never trustworthy.**

It was only after you started dating him that you learned he had multiple personality disorder too. Now that wouldn’t usually be a motive of criticism, considering you hadn’t told him about Rajani either… **But his other personality was dangerous and could have killed you.**

Much later on you learned that that wasn’t exactly true but… **It didn’t change that at the time Daniel truly believed Ruben, his other personality, was dangerous at that time, and would kill you or hurt you.**

Initially you hadn’t truly believed that Ruben could be all that bad but, seeing as Daniel refused to so much as talk about him, you had never been able to ascertain that.

That wasn’t the worst of his wrong doings, though. When he kept hiding his other personality he told you a big massive lie about someone else. She was someone you didn’t personally knew and you later came to find out she had witnessed Ruben-related shenanigans. But in his attempts to keep you from finding out, Daniel lied about her to the point that, while usually you were pretty neutral about others, especially strangers, due to the past of bullying you had under your belt, you came to massively hate her for what he had told you she’d done to him.

When you found out you were more than upset. You, who always had made a point to not judge others without knowing them unless they purposefully hurt you, were now truly hating a girl that was innocent in all of it.

If one thing was to be said about you was that, while you seldom hated others, when you did, it was a fully seething hatred because they had earned it. You didn’t even hate most of your bullies, though you had every reason to do so. 

Knowing that Daniel had made you hate an innocent bystander and that you had actually done so without questioning him, made you despise yourself at that moment. Never had you been so disgusted with yourself. And when you calmed enough to realized it hadn’t been just your fault?...

That was when you had your first major fight. **The relationship you had hoped would be one of honesty and trust started to crumble.**

Naturally, after you made up, you told him about Rajani. He didn’t seem to believe you, but indulged you anyway. You didn’t mind, though. It was liberating not having to worry about keeping her a secret. You were saddened that he seemed to want to see her in a negative light, though.

You had told him that she was violent once and thrived in imagining bloody pictures regarding all the people she hated, and that much was true. But you had also told him you two had reached a truce and that she would never hurt anyone and that she deeply cared about you.

**Of course the asshole would consider anyone other than himself as a bad guy so long as they posed as an obstacle.**

It’s not surprising that Rajani greatly disliked him too. **‘Hate’ is the word you are searching for.**

For a while things seemed fine. Unbeknownst to you he was already undermining your psyche. 

He seemed like a wonderful boyfriend. Always telling you he loved you and believed that you were a good person and could be even greater and that he wanted to watch you grow… **He just wasn’t yet satisfied with who you were and wanted to mold you into his vision of you.**

He never asked you to be perfect… **But demanded without any usage of words, just by little actions.**

You were his first girlfriend, so of course he was insecure! **He spent the whole first year questioning if you really loved him and it went to the point that you had a break down because you started questioning your own feelings.**

It was only natural that you weren’t completely sure of them, especially after what had happened with your first boyfriend. You didn’t want to fall into the same trap and hurt someone else ever again. **And, knowing that fully, he took advantage.**

He was a really sweet boyfriend. **He was good at pretending to be innocent and nice and made you feel like any shortcoming were your fault in the end. And then things started to get to the point you would have fights over minor things due to your frustration stemming from the damage he had already inflicted on you without you noticing. Even when he lost the argument you still had an inkling of doubt inside you. He always made you feel like you were the abusive one.**

Things hadn’t really fallen apart until your fifth year in the relationship. **They were already crumbling in their foundations, though. And you hadn’t even been able to really SEE that.**

It started when Sophie contacted you again after her boyfriend broke up with her and she had close to no one to support her. Aside from you she had one guy who, himself, didn’t have stable relationships but, since he was used to heartbreak, he was great help, and a guy she admitted herself was only being nice because he wanted to bang her.

You and your boyfriend did your best to support her and be there for her. Unfortunately, she was dumb enough to take her asshole boyfriend back. You couldn’t really keep her from doing it, though. It was Sophie’s choice, after all, even if you were pretty sure he had some side chicks.

After that Sophie kept wavering in and out of contact with you. **You came to realize that she only contacted you when she needed you, fully expecting for you to be ok with that!**

You had some fights with her. The first worst one was when you were in a though spot regarding some important personal stuff but you were worried about her since she kept hinting at being in trouble but never saying why.

**You’d been enraged when, in the moment you most needed her, only then did she decide to dump on you her problems as an excuse as not to help you and how underwhelming insignificant they were!**

Ok, insignificant might not have been the right word. She thought her parents were having a divorce **and acting like that was the end of the world!**

Thing was, you, more than anyone else, understood how hard a divorce could be. Your mother’s had involved a lot of threats of beating and kidnapping you away from her. You, more than anyone else, were better equipped to help her through that. But she clammed up on all that. **Not only that, she was being pretty selfish in wanting to keep her parents together. For a woman in her twenties she sure acted like a spoiled child. Why should she dictate that her mother, who she doesn’t even particularly like, should remain married with her cheating asshole of a husband? That was the sort of tantrum expected from little children, not fully functional adults. Talk about pathetic.**

Still, you would have been able to walk her through all that and she hadn’t allowed you, constantly telling you she was fine. 

But then you were in need of your best friend to talk to and, unlike her, you weren’t a believer of faking it until you make it. You always believed that being open about your problems with your friends and seeking their solace was the way to go.

The last thing you needed, when you were emotionally instable and in need of your friend, was for her to blow up at you telling you that she had bigger problems than your broken relationship with your mother. **You know, mommy and daddy potentially -because it wasn’t even confirmed- breaking up and the big twenty-three-year-old baby didn’t like that at all. That sure is far more serious than you having a depression because your mother refused to listen to you when you needed her and instead only hurt you more with incredibly harsh words.**

That was the first major fight you had with your best friend. Rajani hadn’t been able to help you at the time. She was… away. 

That was when you finally began to realize that Sophie no longer thought of you as a friend. Even your family had realized that she was being a bitch and, while your honor towards your friends made sure you defended her in front of your mom, you had slowly begun to doubt her yourself.

The few months that followed spiraled downwards quite fast. Ruben finally talked to you via skype and showed you vulnerability. Knowing that he didn’t trust you, you decided to meet him face to face. If you wanted to earn trust you had to give it too. And by then you were considering a future with Daniel and that couldn’t happen if you had to be constantly afraid Ruben would come out and hurt you. 

Sophie and Daniel insisted on you taking precautions in case he attacked you and, after they insisted a lot, you had caved in. Then, just a few days before the day you were supposed to have a face to face you had to be absent from the internet for a while and Sophie panicked and her panicking could have gotten you killed if Ruben had indeed been dangerous. The precautions you would take would have to remain a secret from Daniel so that Ruben wouldn’t find out and get ready for them and she blew it all by telling Daniel. That, of course, enraged Ruben since that proved that you weren’t really trusting him like you said you would. That was the second major fight you had with her. 

You had managed to calm Ruben down and talked to him honestly and would still meet him the next day. Sophie had been supposed to go with you but she went radio silent all night and all morning and actually forced you to go to her house, like you both had agreed prior to the fight, only for her to say that she was too afraid to risk her own life for yours. **Funny how she felt no qualms about risking yours by revealing the whole plan to Daniel, hmm?**

That day, Ruben, who disliked you as much as Rajani disliked Daniel, if not more, was the one that actually helped you cry your eyes out. You truly believed that your friendship with Sophie was over.

For a month and a half, you became friends with Ruben and tried helping build a bridge between him and Daniel and Sophie refused to contact you. To be fair you also refused to contact her but you were sick and tired of always being the one reaching out to her and going after her to get her to talk to you and she was the one in the wrong this time. 

Your birthday came. You already expected her not go. You hadn’t expected for Daniel to do the same. It hurt you deeply since birthdays were important to you and you always tried to make him feel special in his. Instead he only told you in the eve that he wouldn’t be able to go. You had a fight about it. **All things considered he was making up more and more excuses to miss dates with you and not going to visit you.**

At least Rajani was back.

Eventually Sophie finally decided to contact you to make up. **More like she was very visibly the one in the wrong in that situation and realized that, if she wanted to end her friendship with you without anyone blaming her, she would have to be friends with you again and make sure the next time they would blame you.**

You finally managed to get Daniel to reconcile with Ruben and for a while things were fine… **It was just the calm before the storm.**

After that whole ordeal your already fragile state of mind was in shambles that you were desperately trying to reassemble. Sophie tried to ‘help’ you too. 

…

She didn’t.

In one of your crisis she ended up blowing up at you, blaming you for not getting better. **Oh gee! Look at that! Blaming the victim for being a victim. Real mature coming from her.** And she told you that you were selfish and only cared about yourself and no one else.

…

She knew that your mother constantly called you selfish whenever you failed to get good grades, she also knew that when Daniel kept questioning your feelings that it had really affected you. She KNEW that you were triggered by that subject!

**And she still decided to say it.**

That was when your friendship with her ended for good. Once again, she was set on getting you to go after her like a little puppy but this time you were through with her. You were tired of having your friendship being used and abused left and right. You stood up straight and proud and refused to ever bend down and take it, no matter whatever apologies she might have.

Not that she cared to have any, since this time she actually managed to put your small group of friends against you, including your boyfriend.

You should have known when Daniel made no effort to come visit you when you called him with tears in your eyes after all was said and done. **And when he decided to go visit her at midnight because he finished an animation in a workshop he was working at and just had to show her face to face. That considering he wouldn’t make an effort to visit you at your house, ever.**

You should have known…

But you loved him, and love was blind.

But you trusted his word and that was enough for you.

Because you gave your heart to someone, you gave it fully, without a trace of doubt, because that was what you did when you really loved someone.

A week later, with you refusing to talk to her, Ruben contacted you. He told you that Daniel hated you now for being, in his words, an ‘awful friend’ towards Sophie and Ruben wanted to warn you ahead that Daniel was planning on breaking up with you. You felt cornered.

Still you resolved to tough up and saved him the trouble. It was the pride in you. The only thing you had at that point. Sanity had long flown out of the window. You had scared two of your friends, one of them being Rajani, by cutting up your thigh in an attempt to escape all the pain you were feeling by having your faith in friendship broken and betrayed. So, pride was all you had left and you refused to whine at him not to dump you. Crying was useless and only felt better for the sadistic guys to see a woman weep for them.

Part of you still didn’t believe it. You hoped that it had been some sort of joke. That the next day Daniel would call you up and tell you that what Ruben said was a hurtful prank. Then your denial extended to you thinking of how could Daniel really be serious about this? After all you sacrificed for him? And you got angry.

You swore that, after that first week was over, if he ever wanted you back, he would have to earn it! You wouldn’t just take him back after making you go through that. You would make him suffer and make him realize exactly what he had discarded.

Then anger subsided into depression. The other friends you still had, aside from Rajani and Michiru and Fifas from college that you rarely spoke to because of your busy schedules, abandoned you quite fast. You sensed Sophie’s touch in there.

You and Rajani had been working at McDonalds back then. One of those days you were really down in the dumps and all it took was one minor event involving the café for you to have a meltdown. After making sure you would be ok in the break room, Rajani went off to focus on something else.

You had lied, of course. You weren’t ok. You walked out to the park next to the building. Sometimes teens that thought they were cool for drinking vodka had a party there and left bottles behind. Most times the people in charge of the park cleaned it up. Not that time, though.

You found the bottle. It was still in one piece. That wouldn’t do, of course.

You smashed it against the wall, hearing the satisfying crash and tling-tlinging of falling glass shards. You looked and found the perfect piece with one razor sharp edge. You slashed your wrist. Too shallow. You slashed again and saw with pleasure that blood was pouring out of your wrist. Soon the pain would end…

…

…

**I found her bleeding out…**

**…**

**I made her mind go into a coma and took charge. For a whole year I wouldn’t let her out, afraid she would hurt herself again.**

**I started a course in Design at IADE, hoping to take revenge on the asshole at his preferred occupation as an animator. Perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered. He was the sort of guy that would never go anywhere and couldn’t hold a simple job, let alone one where he wouldn’t be allowed to slack off.**

**Still, that task gave me purpose and i hope it would give her purpose too.**

**I only let her come out again when I was completely sure she wouldn’t do it again.**

**I would have loved to track those two assholes down and torture and kill them for what they did. They had no right! But Miranda had long made me promise not to, which was why I was attempting another sort of revenge.**

**Suffice to say that they are both still alive. I hope their lives are hell. They don’t deserve to have any good moments.**

**…**

…

…

Good thing you had forced the kids to stay in the living room and took this conversation to your room. Suicide was far too heavy a subject for children…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the times it's mentioned that i was away was when I was in a trip with my choir. 'Daniel' never liked from the start and saw me as an obstacle to get Miranda for himself. (probably wanted me gone because I saw right through his bullshit.) I was deceived by 'Sophie', though. in the end i never got true confirmation that the two were shagging but all things considered it seems highly likely (or that at least he was interested in doing it at the very least) that they were.  
> ...  
> I never got to Miranda on time. she was still alive but the died on her way to hospital according to what I heard. She's been bleeding for quite sometime. As for her self depreciating thoughts? those were all things she begun saying more and more often when we spoke.
> 
> I really can't write any more right now, sorry.
> 
> See you next chapter, I guess.


	25. Chapter 24: Your Senses Will Cease to Resist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath of the story, Life is Strange game shenanigans (perhaps seeing the videos attached in the notes might help understand) which leads to Sans having a nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So basically I mention a game theory episode in particular here (this one: : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoinS21NcPY&t=1s ) but another video that might be of interest to understand that sociopath and Psycopath part of Miranda's dialogueis this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUsGDVOCLVQ
> 
> Finally, the song Rajani sings is this version of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEgkBetZY-M  
> Bijuu lord, you never told me exactly in what sort of context you wanted the song so I hope you aren't disapointed. I could have either gone with how it's used in the movie (meaning being decieving) or with the actual meaning of the lyrics. I decided on the later since it fits the scene. Hope you like it.

Silence reigned in your room. Half way through recounting your story Dusk had gone to sit in your lap to comfort you. Your other cats were sitting on each side of you. Your dogs were with the kids, of course. They were better at helping you physically than emotionally.

When you had first started telling your story, Papyrus, Sans and Alphys had been somewhat interested whereas Undyne seemed a bit bored over the lack of action. 

As the story progressed that had changed.

Papyrus had become unable to stand still, busying his gloved hands with some of the bubble wrap you had about in your room, inner conflict evident in his expression. Sans was… unreadable, and appeared to be monitoring your soul. The only sign of emotion he had was his flickered-out eye lights, leaving nothing but a black void behind. Alphys was visibly horrified, eyes wide and her yellow skin significantly paler. You now had Undyne’s full attention. Her golden eye was fixed on you with not a single trace of boredom there.

“So, as you see.” Rajani continued. “We never took love lightly. And now, more than ever, we can’t afford to do so. When Mir falls in love, she’s the kind to sell her soul to the devil just to make sure her loved one is fine. There’s close to nothing she wouldn’t do for the lucky guy. And we can’t afford to have another asshole have that sort of power over her again. So, as much as your shipping shenanigans might amuse you to no end, we won’t be able to correspond to your expectations in that department. We need for Mir to be cautious in regards to her love life. As for me? Well, now you know why I don’t like and, most especially, don’t trust any of you. I don’t like you prying into our private business and re-opening old wounds but so long as Miranda is happy on the long run, I’ll allow that to some extent. But if you ever decide to hurt her… **m e   r u i n i n g   y o u r   f u t u r e   j o b   w i l l   b e   t h e   l e a s t   o f   y o u r   p r o b l e m s . . .** ”

You shove Rajani out of control and amended.

“Sorry. Raj can be a bit over dramatic and exaggerate a lot of stuff.”

“Did You Truly Try To Kill Yourself…?” Papyrus asked in a soft tone for once. It was so surprising that you felt a chill at how unnatural all of that was.

With a grave nod, you confirmed once again that part of the story and lifted your left sleeve, showing him a fading dark discoloration over where the scar had been. It was so surprising how something that could have reaped your life was now mostly gone so easily, as if denying all your pain.

Papyrus tackled you, making your cats hiss in displeasure at being forcefully dislodged.

“PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT EVER AGAIN. THE WORLD WOULD LOSE A MOST WONDERFUL PERSON AND THE GREAT PAPYRUS COULDN’T DEAL WITH THAT! NYOOHOOHOO!” He said, bawling his eye sockets out, dampening your typically white button up with an orange patch on your left shoulder. 

You patted his back, not promising anything. You knew that, as well intended as that promise was, sometimes your biggest enemy was yourself. You had promised similar stuff before and hadn’t been able to remain true to that. You wouldn’t hurt Papyrus by breaking a promise you weren’t sure you could uphold.

“I’m fine now, Papsy. I won’t lie by telling you it no longer affects me, because it does. But now the pain has turned into mere bitterness over all of my own self I wasted on them both. Even my sanity. Please don’t cry for me.”

Your reply was an even more vigorous ‘NYOOHOOHOO!’.

“That… guy… just got to WALK AWAY FROM THAT!?” Undyne suddenly blew up. “After all he did!?”

You said nothing. Rajani replied in your stead.

“Don’t worry, Fishy Vriska. I have enough connections to deny him his dream job at Warner Bros. or any other animation company he could apply to. But those won’t even be necessary, considering how painfully mediocre he was and probably still is.” She said bitterly.

“THAT’S A BIT HARSH MIRAN- WAIT, ARE YOU RAJANI NOW?”

“Yup, but I’ll give her body back right now.”

“THIS IS SO VERY CONFUSING!”

“I… understand.” You said. You really couldn’t make it any less confusing so all you could do was understand everyone’s plight. “I’m sorry.”

“Nah. Don’t apologize, punk! Yeah, you’re different, but that’s what’s good about you! Both of you, in fact!”

“THAT’S TRUE, MIRANDA OR… ER… RAJANI???”

“It’s Miranda now.” You inform with a weak smile breaking your sad frown.

Undyne plopped on the bed in the opposite side from Papyrus and draped an arm around your shoulders. You knew it was her way of showing you the same care Papyrus had. Undyne was far more rough with her way of comforting people than any of the others were.

It was pretty obvious they wanted to ask more about the subject of your past but didn’t want to step on a landmine accidentally. They seemed to doubt your word that you were ok.

“Really, guys. It’s been six years since that happened. Believe me when I say that I’m ok now. The first year was the hardest one. Everything after that, when it comes to those two, has gone swimmingly. It’s still not something I want made public, though. OK?”

“O-o-o-o-ok.”

You sighed. It was always difficult for you to start talking, unlike with Rajani, but you always felt so much lighter afterwards. Your cats joined you and the two monsters holding you for some cuddling. You eyed the two remaining monsters.

“Get over here too, you two! C’mon, let’s make this a group hug!”

They hesitantly joined on you monster/human/cat pile. You even felt Rajani discreetly join in on the hug which made you smile.

“Well. Fluff time over. We need to keep an eye on those kids. And we are getting side tracked from the reason we’re celebrating in the first place!”

“O-oh! You’re right.”

You let go of each other and you stood up from your bed.

“O-oh! B-by the way. I w-wanted to r-run an id-d-dea through you! I-if you d-don’t mind…” Alphys said as you prepared to leave your room. Everyone else had already vacated before you, Undyne dragging Papyrus and Sans teleporting down.

“Oh. Go ahead. I’m all ears.”

“W-w-well… Considering h-how confusing it i-i-is whenever Rajani sp-p-peaks through you I w-was wondering… I was considering b-building a comunic-c-c-cator to be attatched at t-t-t-the side of your s-s-soul she inhabits. T-t-that way s-she wouldn’t need to pull y-y-y-you out all of the t-t-t-time.”

The stuttering confused you a bit so you kindly asked her to repeat and then explain what her plan was. Apparently she’d come up with the idea of building a mini robot in resemblance to Kyoko’s demons that would have a magic antenna connected to Rajani’s side of your soul and would enable her to communicate to others without having to take over your body. It would help other keep track of who was talking at the moment. 

She explained to you that she had the basics sketched up and all there was left was to actually build it and test it to see if there would be the need for adjustments. You were actually kind on interested in it. It was also a way for you to investigate how your own soul worked and learn new things from the dinosaur monster. So, you agreed.

You both returned downstairs once all was settled.

“Hey! What took you guys so long?” Undyne asked ask she saw you enter the living room.

“Alphys was pitching me an idea to help with the Rajani confusion. Soon I’ll have a mini me robot floating around through which Rajani will speak through.”

“M-M-M-Miranda! I-I-I-I-I-I only h-have t-the b-b-blueprints! We d-d-d-don’t even k-know if it’ll w-work!” Alphys blurted out nervously.

“Nah! Knowing you, you’ll have it running by the end of the month! You are my genius little scientist, after all!” Undyne reassured her with all the confidence the yellow dinosaur lacked.  
Alphys blushed prettily and you looked away from the diabetic inducing display of affection to focus on the kids. You realized that Frisk had reached the very last choice in the game. The one where they got to choose between saving the town by going back in time and letting the protegonist's best friend Chloe be shot to death or letting the whole town be ravaged by a hurricane and keeping the friend alive.

“How did you get here so fast?” You asked, feeling very much surprised. You felt slightly curious about all the choices they had done so far but, considering how long the game was, you felt much more curious about how Frisk had managed to finish it in an afternoon.

“Determination!” That was one of the first words that you had managed to memorize from their ASL. They used that word a lot.

“Yo, I don’t like this choice!” MK commented. Frisk seemed very much on edge over what to choose either.

“It is a very difficult one.” You admitted.

“Have you ______ this ____?” Frisk asked.

You squinted at the question, filling in the blanks from your lack of knowledge.

“Have I… Played?” They nod. “No, But I did watch some theories and Sin counters.”

“sin counters?” Sans asked suddenly.

“Yup! You know, mistakes and things that aren’t ok with whatever movie or game they make the video about. They also can be named movie or game mistakes, but I mainly call them sin counters since sometimes they detract points over thing I don’t understand the reasoning to. Then again it might be more of a socially acknowledged mistake rather than a factual one. That game has a lot of them.” Frisk nodded in agreement at that.

“REALLY? HOW SO?”

“Well, the whole time traveling shtick is all messed up, for example. First time she does it the thing that is established is that she returns exactly to the place she had been in before, meaning even her body position was rewound by the power. But then, on the multiple times she uses it next all that resets is the world around her, as she remains on her current position. And that begs the question: What happens to the version of her that was on the original place? Does she vanish? And if so, how come no one notices? It causes a paradox. And then all of the sudden, for no good reason they decide that she can rewind using photographs without explaining how she reaches that conclusion. How does she know she can rewind to the time of a photo?”

“THAT ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE! IN THE SENSE THAT THE GAME DOESN’T MAKE SENSE, THAT IS.” Papyrus conceded.

“Honestly, if they decided that time travel is a thing then they should make it consistent and chose one of two ways. Either the person themselves is rewound, memories aside; or only the world around goes back which means that there should be a version of the person walking about that they might run into. That begs the question of: if you go back to change the past, what reason would you give past you to rewind and do the same? Especially if the reason you rewound on the first place had no involvement of future you?... GAH, I know I’m being confusing! Heck, Homestuck explains this stuff way better than me!” You exclaim at seeing the tall skeleton’s confused expression.

“no, no. i get it.” Sans inserts, though you hadn't been explaining to him. “there’s… time travel in homestuck?”

“Yeah, you never reached that part. Let’s just say that Homestuck timelines work this way: There’s an alpha timeline. That timeline is defined by the one that has most survivors from all of the Sburb gameplays. Meaning it’s not just the humans you saw. There are other players from other universes. Even if there are timelines of one of those universes where everyone survives, because it’s not connected to the other gameplays and the other people to survive, causing their death due to a lack of team work, then it can’t be considered an Alpha timeline. Those timelines that aren’t the Alpha ones are doomed to vanish eventually. There is also one character in each group that is able to travel through time, which is why there are timelines in the first place, ensuring they get the best possible outcome. Say that one key player dies when they are not supposed to. That character will go back in time to stop it. Homestuck works with two sorts of time travel consequences on the game. A stable loop, in which that character sees future him going back in time to save that person and makes sure to do it too in the future to avoid all the time manipulation shenanigans that could ensue. Or, If the character goes back to a time they aren’t supposed to, they’ll eventually find death because they aren’t supposed to alter the Alpha timeline. Then there’s eventually a wild card that surpasses that sense of ‘fate’, but that a spoiler for way in the future.”

“The more you talk about that Homestuck thing, the nerdier it sounds!” Undyne intervenes with her face screwed in distaste.

“Well, this is one side of it. There are several. Especially when the Trolls enter the picture. I’m pretty sure you and Alphys would appreciate all the Troll romance quadrants.” You winked.

“R-romance Q-q-quadrants?” Alphys asked, suddenly very interested.

“Yup. Trolls have four kinds of romance. Rajani's favorite character explains all about it…. or tries to. In the end the narrator does it for him.” You chuckle.

With all your talk of Homestuck, you all ended up watching the whole voice acting of Act 1, which ended with a meteor falling on the main character’s house and uncertainty over whether he was able to survive or not. You admitted that it was pretty boring at first, but you liked it enough. Undyne gritted her teeth through the whole of it, pretty impatient. Papyrus seemed to find it amusing, especially when it came to the capchalogue modus shenanigans and how puzzling the way it worked was. Alphys was pretty interest in the capchalogue modus she had seen, relating them to some programing and computer stuff. The kids seemed pretty entertained themselves and Sans was mostly bored since he had already seen part of Act 1.

Only after watching Homestuck did Frisk go back to the game choice he had put aside until then, still unsure of what to choose. Everyone gave their opinions on the subject. You abstained.

“I-I-I-I-I’m not s-sure I c-c-could make that choice.” Alphys said looking very much haunted for some reason.

“HUMAN FRISK! I’M VERY MUCH CONFLICTED ABOUT THIS CHOICE, ARE THERE NO OTHERS?” Papyrus asks.

“I… would do it. I wouldn’t like it. I would hate it but… As a Royal Guard it’s my duty to uphold the safety of the people even if… no. NO! I WOULD FIND ANOTHER WAY! I’M SURE. I WOULD KEEP BOTH THE CITY SAFE AND MY BEST FRIEND ALIVE! THAT'S WHAT HEROES DO, AFTER ALL!!! FUHUHUHUH!” Undyne added and MK rushed to agree with her.

“So, you try not to have to make that choice, but if you had you would chose duty?” You asked to confirm.

“Putting it that way makes me seem callous, punk.” Undyne commented. “What about you?”

“To be honest? I would be very much indecisive and try to have others chose for me. I don’t do well with choices and I don’t want anyone to die. If there was one end I could chose if I could freely alter the game, it would be going back and taking the gunshot myself. That way my best friend would be alive, someone would still die and maybe that would appease fate and the same thing wouldn’t happen.”

“WHAT ABOUT YOU, BROTHER?”

“i would be too lazy to do anything.”

“SANS! THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS!!!”

“alright, alright. i would probably choose the city. according to frisk she has other friends there too. and her best friend is constantly getting herself into trouble and almost dying.”

“Interesting…” You said.

“what?”

“I’m just wondering if you are detaching yourself too much of the situation or not. You are thinking solely logically, I think, with no other factors in mind.”

“how so?”

“What she means…” Rajani said taking over your body. “is that she doubts you would make that choice if the things you would be weighing instead of fictional characters where your brother against everyone else in the Underground.”

Sans’ eye lights vanished and sweat covered his forehead.

“Raj, that is a mean way to put it!” You said and she took over so that others could hear her reply. “It’s true, though.”

“Well, I, for one, would choose my best friend. Let all those other suckers die!” Flowey intervened.

“That’s an interesting reply too, Flowey.” You commented.

“What, because I’m an evil psychopathic being that wouldn’t mind watching the world burn?”

“No, quite the opposite.” You said. “It shows that, for all your bragging of how you don’t have feelings and such, you would still choose the to save your best friend.”

“Well, duh!” He said as if obvious.

“Do you know that these game circumstances can actually be used to measure whether you may have psychopathy and sociopathy or not?” You asked.

Frisk turned to you and signed.

“Really!?”

“Yup. It is pretty similar to what is known as ‘the trolley problem’ by Phillippa Foot and the version later invented of that same problem. Both psychopathy and sociopathy are distinct by their lack of empathy towards others and impossibility on forming meaningful relationships. Choosing to save a loved one over strangers serves to show you have empathy and are capable of forming meaningful relationships. That doesn’t immediately mean that those who chose the other path are immediately considered psychopaths, merely that they fall on the intuitive spectrum of personality. It might also mean that, in a gaming perspective, the person isn’t really immersed into the gameplay and/or are a lot more rational about the choice.” You explain. “It is also why I thought Sans hadn’t really put himself into that character’s shoes and was just seeing things in an analytical and detached manner. He is far too protective towards his friends and family to lack any empathy, even if he more than likely is in the intuitive spectrum of personality.” Flowey seemed to want to angrily deny your claims about himself but you had drowned his protests.

“O-oh! T-t-that’s interesting.” Alphys commented, interrupting him further.

“True that.” By this time Flowey gave up on inputting anything since you were always interrupting him anyway.

“How do you know all of this, punk!?” Undyne asked.

“I read a lot?”

“Yeah, but… why this?”

“To know myself better. I am very much on edge between both sides. I am very rational and know that sacrificing my friend would ensure the survival of a lot of people and that side of me is screaming for me to save them. But I also put a lot of weight on my relationships and that empathetic side of me is screaming for me to save my friend. That’s why I say that, with just those choices presented to me and none more, I would probably wait for someone else to take the choice away from my hands and would easily sacrifice myself if I had the option of doing so.”

“Oh!”

“And I would choose my mind sis over some assholes that couldn’t care less about me!” Rajani said through you.

As you looked around to see everyone’s reactions to Rajani’s outburst you noticed how uncomfortable Sans seemed with the topic and decided to change it.

“Do… you think the trial tomorrow will be ok?” You asked nervously since you couldn’t think of anything else to talk about.

“Sure will, punk!”

“HAVE FAITH IN THE LAWMASTER HUMAN. HE SAID EVERYTHING WOULD BE OK SO IT WILL! I BELIEVE IN HIM!”

Soon you were far too distracted to notice how Sans was still looking very much on edge over the information you relayed. He sneaked into his room while no one was watching.

After calming your nervous self down, they proceeded by discussing other things you could do to celebrate. You ended up watching a movie marathon and insisted one showing them the ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ movies.

They loved them and kept commenting on them.

You watched as, slowly, everyone around you fell asleep, too nervous to do so yourself.

You decide you would do some reading before attempting to sleep. You needed to be well rested for the following day, after all. But first you would go get a snack from the kitchen. You took a cookie from a jar that Toriel kept on a higher shelf. It was chocolate chip, tender in the middle and very, very delicious!

As you were walking back to the living, room. Half eaten cookie in your hand, you heard a faint sound from upstairs. It was probably Toriel or Asgore. 

They had returned home somewhere in the midst of your movie marathon but hadn’t bothered to cook dinner for you because of all the snacking that was undergoing, as much as Toriel disliked that her Frisk wasn’t eating healthy.

You climbed the stairs and noticed that Dusk was in front of a bedroom, scratching at the door. It wasn’t neither Toriel’s nor Asgore’s room door. It was Sans’ and you realize that you hadn’t seen him down in the living room for a while. For quite some time, in fact.

Bluish light seemed to come from the crack below the door and you could hear some whimpers. A nightmare? That would explain Dusk. You had trained her to comfort you in your sleep whenever you had some PTSD induced nightmare. The fact that you were usually quiet meant that she was even more attuned to nightmare detecting. The fact that Sans was being reasonably vocal about his meant that Dusk was getting pretty worked up. You couldn’t let her in. You now knew that monsters could attack without meaning to while asleep if they felt in danger. 

Nothing like a nightmare to feel very much in danger.

You didn’t like knowing others were in pain or afraid. You attempted to open the door, being careful so as not to let your cat through. It was locked. Nothing Rajani couldn’t fix.

_**Do we really have to? I don’t want to help this asshole!** _

_Do it for me. Pleasy. Pwetty pwease!!!_ You attempted to make the biggest mental puppy dog eyes you could.

_**Geez, you are way too nice to others! Fine!** _

She got some improvised lock picks. She wasn’t an expert at picking locks but she was stubborn enough so as not to give up whenever she failed. Having a door that constantly got stuck at your old house had been a good way to practice that stubbornness.

Soon the door made a click indicating it was open. You ordered Dusk to go back downstairs and only after she obeyed, albeit very reluctantly, did you open the door and peeked inside.

Sans was very much having a nightmare, that’s for sure. Things were hovering around in the air like some sort of paranormal horror movie and the skeleton looked like he was struggling with something, twitching like mad.

You walked in, intending on waking him up, but as soon as you touched him you felt your soul being drawn out of your body and saw as a deep royal blue covered it. You felt odd, like all control was being forcefully taken from you and you couldn’t regain it. Like desperately trying to hold onto a ledge that was covered in oil so you wouldn’t fall to your death.

You relaxed a bit when you felt Rajani automatically take charge, though not by much! You were still in danger after all. You felt yourselves be lifted by your soul. It felt very much different than from when he used that very same power on your body alone. It felt like he was literally grabbing your whole body-weight by your heart, putting a strain of it. 

In short, it hurt a lot.

Still Rajani managed to upright herself in time to hit the wall with your feet, like she was simply landing from a jump, rather than with your back.

Sans’ hand twitched again and you were sent towards the floor and then the ceiling, with Rajani managing to always gracefully land on her feet. You never though that Rajani was so agile. She had never seemed to be able to be this much agile before.

She took the chance that she was near Sans bed to try and jump up towards him and tackled the slumbering skeleton, holding onto him for dear life. 

You did felt that his weight countered yours but only a little since he was that much lighter, and you fell to the ceiling again, this time reasonably slower than before.

“Wake up! You god forsaken cueball!” Rajani protested after landing on the ceiling, only to see she was being dragged down to yet another wall, this time faster because it wasn’t in the opposite direction of the actual Earth gravity.

You ***check** ed Sans to see if he would wake up soon.  
.

>   
>  **“Sans”**
> 
> **LV ⛆**
> 
> **HP 1**
> 
> **AT 1 (1)    EXP: ⛆**
> 
> **DF 1 (1)**
> 
> ***Sans is having a nightmare.**  
> 

.

As soon as Rajani glimpsed the very same thing as you she got distracted enough that you actually got slammed into the wall, but she did make sure to protect the skeleton at the last moment.

“THIS FUCKASS HAS FREAKING 1 HP!!!???” She said, surprised.

You were pretty surprised yourself. You never thought the skeleton would be so fragile. You remember faintly of when Alphys told you about soul health regarding yours. Bad environment could lower your HP but he wasn’t living in one. Which only left one option regarding such a ridiculously low amount of it. Trauma or depression. 

How bad did it had to be to reach such low values?

Rajani started trying to awake him, this time much less aggressively than before, when she was shaking him.

You tried to come out to help, but somehow you couldn’t. It felt different from when Rajani tried to keep you from taking over… but then again, she wasn’t usually resolved enough to stop you completely and if you were determined enough you would easily shove her aside. Maybe this time she was just more determined than you?

You decided not to think about it. There were more important things she needed to concentrate on.

_Hug him._

_**WHAT!?** _

_Holding him like you’re about to strangle him and shaking him harder than a pair of maracas isn’t helping. We don’t know what he is dreaming about so talking isn’t an option so try to give him some physical reassurance._

_**I know that! But… URGH! He owes me BIG TIME!** _

Rajani hugged him to her and started to pet his smooth skull soothingly. She had always been good at helping you, albeit there was the difference that you two shared the same body. Helping him wasn’t much different. She just didn’t like hugging people she wasn’t particularly fond of and Sans had at least a negative brownie point or two on Rajani’s book currently.

You didn’t need to prod her into doing something else she also did to cheer you up. She did it naturally.

“Trust in me. Just in me.” Rajani sang quietly. “Shut your eyes, trust in me.”

The song was originally used by Kaa, a deceiving, manipulative snake in The Jungle Book movie, as he hypnotized young Mowgly into sleep. Rajani used it in a vastly different context. She used it to sooth you whenever you had a nightmare that was particularly bad. 

It wasn’t a song either of you knew prior to… to THAT moment. She only learned it afterwards and had become a way to anchor you to the present and drag you out of the past. You had learned to associate that tune and lyrics as something that clearly doesn’t belong to the timeframe of your nightmares. It helped you snap out of it.

“You can sleep, safe and sound  
Knowing I am around”

The tight frown in Sans face loosened a bit and the twitching on his left hand that had been sending you from side to side slowed.

“Slip into silent slumber  
Sailing on a silver mist  
Slowly and surely your senses  
Will cease to resist”

His hand stopped but you remained floating as if in gravity zero.

“Just relax, be at rest  
Like a bird in a nest  
Trust in me, just in me  
Shut your eyes, trust in me”

Slowly you were lowered onto the floor. Rajani had her eyes closed as she sang so you weren’t exactly sure of what was happening. You did feel Sans grasp onto your clothes firmly, though.

Sensing that the skeleton was far more calm Rajani slowed the last verse adding a soothing rub to his scalp.

“Trust in me, just in me  
Shut your eyes, trust in me…”

“uh?” It seemed he was awake at last. Rajani opened your eyes and looked at him.

“Awake at last, Cueball!” She said and though her tone was still a bit harsh, it wasn’t as distaste filled as usual. Rajani always had a weak spot for taking care of others in their time of need. For someone that claimed to dislike people in general, she did have a big, fuzzy and soft heart underneath all the stone.

 

\--Sans POV—

 

Sans looked around, feeling very much dazed, a soothing tune ringing in his head. He wasn’t in bed but yes in a warm soft surface. A surface that talked. That’s when he noticed the soul floating in his Indigo magic and bathing the room in calming blue hues.

He noticed finally that the surface the he was grasping was in fact Miranda. Startled, he quickly jumped away.

“wha-!?” _what are you doing in my room_ He finished in his thoughts.

__

“Dusk was worried about you having a nightmare. Mir insisted we help you.”

__

So… he was talking to Rajani, then?

__

“how-!?” _how did you get in!?_ Once again, he could only finish his inquiry via thoughts.

__

“I picked the lock. Mir was really worried, since you were whimpering so much.” She was clearly relentless in making him feel pathetic. He hated knowing he had made such a pathetic sound.

__

“why-?”

__

“Didn’t I tell you already? Mir was worried.”

__

“not that. why you?” He finally managed to form a coherent sentence. 

__

He, so far as he had observed, had thought that Rajani disliked him greatly. It puzzled him that she’d been the one helping.

__

“No idea why, but Miranda was forced out of control and someone has to keep the ship running. And if I didn’t do it she would be pissed at me.” She then seemed to stop and stare blankly ahead. “Oh! Miranda wants to ask you to let go of our soul. I agree with her. It hurts to have it being held like this.”

__

Oops. He’d forgotten that. He dissipated his magic quickly and a surprised expression crossed Rajani’s face.

__

“Ok, my work here is done. Now Miranda’ll take care of you. Bye.”

__

With that, the dual colored soul went from glowing brighter on the blue side to the gray side, as the expressions on her face when from aloof to blank, to finally settle in a gently smile

__

“I hope you’re feeling better.” She said.

__

“y-yeah. i, uh, I’m fine.”

__

“No, you’re not. But with some time and clever distractions you will be.” Miranda said as she stood up and forced him to stand too.

__

It bothered him that she was right. He was anything but fine after that nightmare and did feel grateful that she had awoken him. If she hadn’t… he would have dreamed of even worse things.

__

Ever since that comment about his choice in the ‘Life is Strange’ game, and the explanation both of them had provided, that he had felt greatly disturbed.

__

When he had first thought of that choice he had automatically placed Frisk in place of Chloe, the best friend in the game, and the whole of the underground monsters in place of the town.

__

As much as he liked the kid, he had been through enough resets and genocide runs to not hesitate when faced between choosing the kid or everyone else.

__

And then she’d pointed out that he probably wouldn’t have felt the same way if it had been Papyrus in place of Chloe.

__

And he came to realize that he would quickly put the whole of the underground aside for the sake of his brother! 

__

What kind of a judge was he that he wouldn’t even hesitate to sacrifice everyone else just so that his brother could live. 

__

That had mixed with his usual genocide nightmare having the megalomaniac kid forcing him to choose. But they hadn’t demanded that he just picked one of the choices. They wanted to force him to personally go around killing every single monster or else they would kill his brother. And they were always just there, knife held to his brother’s neck vertebrae, following him around with a malevolent smirk, making sure he didn’t pretend to murder anyone and secretly let them escape. Trying to attack the human almost got his bother killed too.

__

What shamed him most about the dream was that he had almost done it.

__

…

__

**H e   h a d   a l m o s t   k i l l e d   a   m o n s t e r   t o   s a v e   h i s   b r o t h e r . . .**

__

Just as he had gotten enough resolve to do it that song had snapped him out of it. It slowly lulled him away from that place and he slowly realized that he was asleep and forced himself to wake up.

__

He felt so relieved to realize that it had all been a nightmare and that it was over now.

__

He wasn’t really paying attention to Miranda as she led him downstairs, so focused that he was in piecing his nightmare together and trying to come to terms with it. Only when they reached the kitchen and she placed a warm mug full of milk in front of him did he focus on her again.

__

“Ah, you’re finally back from that far away galaxy in your skull.” She noted. He must have been really out of it. “I can’t sleep. I was going to watch another movie. Want to come? I’m pretty sure you won’t be sleeping anytime soon either.

__

He nodded and then paused.

__

“aren’t you going to… ask?” _please don’t ask!_

__

“Are you offering to tell?”

__

“what? no!” _pleasedon’taskpleasedon’taskpleasedon’task…_

__

“Then no, I’m not going to ask.” A pause. “I hope you like Lilo and Stich.”

__

“what?” _she isn’t? why? who? what? _

__

“It’s the main characters’ names.” She informed him.

__

They spent some time watching the movie as he drank his milk and ate a cookie she retrieved from the kitchen. 

__

He would have liked to say he was paying attention to the movie, but instead he was more focused on the calming presence of the girl. The couch was taken by the kids so they were sitting just in front of it, using it as their backrest and Sans sat closer to the woman than he ever let himself to. 

__

At this moment, he really needed to feel her there. He needed to know he wasn’t back there again, just with a different scenery. When she didn’t react in any way to his closeness he dared to lean on her. 

__

She did jerk a bit in surprise. Then, with one quick glance at him she looped an arm around his shoulders, bringing him closer. She gave him an understanding smile before turning her attention back to the movie. 

__

Nope, he really wouldn’t be paying much attention to the movie. Her presence brought back his sleepiness. All he would remember later on of the movie was finally understanding what she meant with Ohana when referring to Grillby. 

__

Family…

__

That was one concept he could get behind.

__

She leaned her head on his skull and he could feel he wasn’t the only one who was heeding sandman’s calling. Soon both were asleep, bodies slipping to the floor.

__

The movie went on without them, the only witness to their intimate moment of understanding and comfort.

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was pretty tired when I uploaded this chapter and didn't corret many typos. I would apreciate pointing out my mistakes. Thank you in advance


	26. Chapter 25: Rain on My Parade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of legalese that the author and characters needed to get out of the way and the famed thing that I mentioned in the ending notes some chapters back (chapter 12 if I'm not mistaken) would happen at Grillby's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -w-... My lips are sealed... until the ending notes, that is.

You had no idea of when you had finally managed to fall asleep. One thing is for sure. You were feeling quite warm and comfortable when you woke up, so you didn’t bother getting up. You were sure that, when it was time for you to get ready, either someone would wake you up, or your alarm clock would.

Instead you pulled the warmth near you closer still. It must be one of your dogs. Judging from the size, it’s probably Hades? He did feel bigger though. Well, never mind. What mattered is that you’re comfortable and don’t want to get up anytime soon.

It wasn’t until you heard some voices murmuring nearby that you began to notice something was amiss. For starters, as comfortable as you were, you knew you weren’t on your bed, but yes on the floor.

You remembered the celebration and movie night. Then you remembered Sans’ nightmare. How shook up he’d been when Rajani had finally been able to wake him up. Of how you brought him down to the living room in the end, to get him to relax and get some actual sleep.

And suddenly the fact that Hades seemed bigger than usual made sense.

Well, dart!

You opened your eyes owlishly as you took in the people around you. Papyrus was wide awake but wasn’t paying much attention to you, instead he was busy cleaning the mess from the previous night. MK was still asleep and, surprisingly, had his tail around Flowey’s pot. Even more surprising: despite being awake, Flowey was allowing Kid to hold him, even while looking very much annoyed at that fact. Your dogs were all surrounding them both, still mostly asleep, though they were beginning to perk their ears to the first signs of breakfast in the typical manner dogs usually did.

Frisk, Undyne and Alphys where the ones watching you and the voices you had heard, minus Frisk since they couldn’t actually talk. Predictably, Sans was serving as your body pillow. Not so much predictably, you were both covered in cats.

As soon as they noticed you awake, Frisk wiggled their eyebrows at you in a cheeky manner that you didn’t care much for, but decided to ignore. Alphys seemed to be toying with her phone with Undyne looking over her shoulder… Had they just taken a picture of you?

“Sup.” You say in a muffled, sleepy way, startling both women, as they had yet to notice your eyes were open.

“O-oh! H-h-hi!”

“What you doin’?”

“Just taking pictures of you nerds.” Undyne said unabashedly.

“Oh, das cool.” You commented, not really caring about what they were doing. “Send me copy later. Now gonna go back to sleep. Nighty night.”

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Undyne objected. “We need to get ready for the preliminary hearing soon. There’s no point in going back to sleep now, punk!”

“Urgh! But I’m so cozy!” You protested. “Plus, I have cats on top of me. I can’t possibly kick them out, poor things.”

“You… are surprisingly lazier than I expected.”

“I hate mornings. If I have time for more sleep, I sleep. Only wake up when I really need to.” Despite your protests, you had begun to gently prod your cats out of you.

You, once again, noticed that Sans seemed to have a belly. Being in your sleep deprived state you did the most logical thing you were able to. It was so immensely genius that you could have only came up with it in you sleep-addled state of mind. 

…

You poked his belly.

He snorted in his sleep.

…

He was ticklish…

A wide, mischievous and still somewhat sleepy smile filled your face. 

You tickled the sleeping monster and he had no choice but to wake up laughing and your laugh sang along. Sans managed to teleport away but you were on a war path now and looked at the three that had woken you up.

Frisk was smart enough to realize your intentions and bolted. Undyne and Alphys weren’t so lucky, tough. You pounced on them and attacked their sides. Alphys was ticklish there but Undyne wasn’t so you maneuvered to grasp a fishy foot and tickle it until she was guffawing. You almost got kicked in the face but it was worth it. 

Before Undyne could strike back at you -you hadn’t been much worried about Alphys doing that- you chased down Frisk, who was trying to find a place to hide in.

By then MK was awake and Flowey was berating you loudly, so you detoured towards them. Tickling MK was easy, but you had to get creative with Flowey, while avoiding his vines and teeth. Apparently, he was ticklish on the back side of his flowery head, close to the stem.

Satisfied, you dodged Undyne again and went after Frisk. You finally caught them hiding inside a cupboard and tickled them until they asked for mercy. 

Your next target was Papyrus, who just entered the living room again. He had left with the trash made by all your snacking before your tickle war and was completely unaware. 

You jumped him but, instead of tickling him, you used him as a hostage to get Undyne to back off. The tall skeleton was very confused, especially when you lifted him and ran around with him, fleeing from a very determined Undyne.

Skeletons were really light, apparently. Despite being taller than Sans, Papyrus seemed to weigh pretty much the same.

Eventually the commotion you were causing calmed down. Only then did Sans teleport back to the living room, more precisely to the couch, where he flopped tiredly.

“so… what was this all about?” He asked.

“… You have a belly.” Such genius reply meant you were probably still not awake enough, despite all the hijinks that had ensued.

Sans didn’t seem to like the reference to his ‘weight’ so you poked his belly again, with a smile.

“It’s cuddly.”

And now he was blue in the face.

You yawned and cracked a few bones in your arms as you stretched.

“Let’s go take the dogs out?” You asked Undye and Papyrus.

“Yeah, sure.” Undyne said casually, but there was an odd glint in her eyes as she eyed you. It looked a bit mischievous.

Your dogs, which had been pretty excited over all the commotion, became even more jittery when they saw you grabbing the set of leashes. You didn’t feel the need to dress up before taking them out for a walk. You usually only walked them within the compound, so no one would be seeing you looking sloppy, anyway.

“Aaa! I’ haven’t tickled anyone in what seems like forever!” You sighed in contentment once you felt the chilly morning air hit your face.

“REALLY? YOU SEEMED TO BE QUITE ADEPT AT IT, SKINNY HUMAN.” Papyrus had finally stopped calling you Miranda again, which must mean he wasn’t being overly careful around you anymore. After telling your tale yesterday Papyrus spent the rest of the day calling you Miranda, as if he feared that calling you Skinny Human at that moment would break you. As much as you enjoyed having your name back for a while, it worried you when Papyrus called you by it.

“I used to be. I also used to be great at tackling people with kiss attacks!” You said.

“What!?” Undyne exclaimed.

“Yup. One of my grandmas wasn’t ticklish so the only way I got her to laugh was by attacking her face with a barrage of kisses. Her laugh was great. I didn’t use that one that often, though.”

“You are surprisingly at ease with physical contact.”

“Portuguese people usually are. Not with strangers, because that would be creepy, but with friends and family. And you’re one to talk, by the way! Aren’t you constantly giving noogies to people and stuff?”

“HECK YEAH, I AM! FUHUHUHUHUH!”

Since you still had some time, you took the chance to train your dogs. You didn’t have the time to train them lately and didn’t want for their skills to go rusty in the short timeframe you would stay in the compound.

Undyne observed you interestedly as Papyrus enthusiastically volunteered to help by pretending to be an attacker or a victim that you and your dogs would defend.

As usual, Iris, or Larger Female Dog according to Papyrus, was pretty unruly, disliking to obey orders right away if she felt there was no urgency to it. One would have called her lazy if it weren’t for the fact that instead of obeying she was running all over the place. Her best trait was her speed and energy, though, so if she was feeling particularly competitive she would outrun everyone.

Nucha, also known as Smaller Female Dog, wasn’t as fast. She was far smarter and cunning, though, at times managing to outsmart the other two, surpassing Hades’ advantage in strength and Iris’ advantage in speed. She was quickly becoming Papyrus’ favorite dog out of the three. He was even suggesting making a course with puzzles for her to solve.

Hades was still the same gentle giant as usual, with no control over his own strength. You used that to your advantage when training him.

When you saw that you needed to get a move on and put an end to training, Undyne questioned about your other training regiments, even as you ate breakfast. She only relented when you went up to your room to change.

You chose the most formal attire you could find, a set you had worn several times in the past for job interviews with a black pencil skirt that ended just below the knees, a black blazer jacket with a maroon lining inside and a loose pinkish red shirt. You also wore high heels for once. You didn’t particularly like to wear them but you could still run in them, albeit awkwardly, if needed be.

You carefully brushed your hair into a ponytail and secured any loose ends.

You came down to see MK, Undyne and Asgore waiting for you. Dan had also arrived at some point and was busy fending off Iris’ rough affections. 

Dan was the first to notice you. He seemed relived at your arrival since it meant he wouldn’t have to deal with the crazed dog much longer.

“You look nice, Miss Castro.” He said and the other’s immediately looked at you.

“Indeed, Miranda.” Asgore agreed.

“I had no idea you could look that good, punk! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?” She then grabbed you with an odd glint to her eyes and dragged you to the kitchen where everyone else was eating their breakfast. “HEY! LOOK AT THIS PUNK! If she dressed like this every day she would have a hard time fending off a ton of suitors!”

“Really, Undyne!? You dragged me here for this?” 

You completely missed the blushing skeletons and dinosaur but Undyne didn't.

“Sure did, punk!”

“… nice outfit.” Sans finally commented, conquering the blush you had failed to notice, breaking the silence at such rude interruption of morning rituals. “It _suits_ you. ”

“SANS!” Papyrus protested.

The next moment, everyone was either gushing at your choice of clothes or they were Papyrus and Sans exchanging puns and chagrin. You took a moment when everyone was distracted from you to escape Undyne’s clutches and flee to the entrance hall.

“HEY, PUNK! WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?” She asked from afar when she noticed you were gone.

“We have a preliminary hearing to go to, if you haven’t noticed.” You said.

She joined you again and you finally left the house.

You could hardly believe the bullbcrap that the three douchebags were trying to pull on the judge. During your drive to the courtroom, Dan informed you all that they had tried to make it all seem like a misunderstanding. That they were in fact trying to help MK and not kill him and that you had come across the scene without full understanding and attacked before actually making sure of what was going on.

During the hearing, their defense attorney sure did his damn hardest to break apart both yours, MK’s and Grillby’s accounts of what happened. Predictably, he brought up the fact that you were living on the streets as an excuse to invalidate your statements, to which you showed the judge several accounts of your behavior at work to prove you weren’t insane or in any way mentally disabled. Their lawyer then asked you why you were living on the streets and you told them to save money. When he tried to press you further about the subject you informed the judge that the reasons why were secret and you would only reveal them to him alone.

After you showed the judge the file you'd compiled, you took the file back, intending on burning it so no one could read it. Perhaps Grillby would be more than glad to oblige? The remaining interviews followed the same logic, even with witnesses that they brought with them. 

MK had been pretty scared as he stood face to face with his attackers but, with one glance at Undyne, he gritted his teeth and gave his faithful account. His relief was palpable when he no longer had to stay on their line of sight. The kid was beginning to rely less in the fish woman as his anchor to reality and this moment had been one of the few exceptions.

The judge concluded that there was probable cause and scheduled the actual trial for a week later. According to Dan, it was too close and that a regular court wouldn’t be able to handle it, since it didn’t give the prosecutor enough time to gather all of the evidence needed, especially if the trial was one of the more complex ones.

After the preliminary hearing, Dan got good news about your own attack trial. Apparently, all of the thirteen guys had been far smarter than the stupid trio and plead guilty with a reduced sentence due to them ratting the others out on several accounts of murder in relation to the missing monsters’ cases. Because they plead guilty there would be no need for a preliminary hearing or a trial.

This also meant that a new separate trial would be needed so as to persecute the felons for those missing monsters but you didn’t have to worry about that one much, since the only crimes you'd witnessed was MK’s and your own. And since MK’s attackers were already being judged for it in a separate trial and your attackers wouldn’t go to trial... worst that could happen was for you to be asked to give your intake on those people’s personalities.

Anyway, it was a relief to have gotten that over with, but the next week would prove to be the busiest and most stressful you’ve ever had. Despite only having missed one day, even the little help you could have provided your team with in that short timeframe had been sorely missed.

Several problems came up that required immediate and fast solutions and you even had to get involved with the dubbing when a singing voice actress got a cold and could no longer sing for the part in time for everything to be ready for the release date. By the time the trial date came you were very much exhausted, but relieved that the animation was finally over and done with.

The actual trial was another subject altogether.

This time there would be journalists and news anchors there. As the only human witness you would probably get a lot of mediatic cover, which you disliked greatly and felt threatened about. The last thing you wanted was for your face to be smeared all over… again…

And if someone recognized you?

It had been a long time so maybe they wouldn’t, and the media really hadn’t gotten a clear shot of your face back then.

This time the trial would be held in the afternoon so when lunch time came you didn’t really eat much. This time you couldn’t really present your file for evidence to sway the jury because you didn’t want any other people to know what was in there. Technically they weren’t supposed to reveal or discuss sensitive aspects of the case to the outside but... could one really trust a stranger with it? You knew you couldn’t.

Dan insisted you bring the file anyway so you eventually conceded. Apparently, the judge, the same one as before, would make sure that no sensitive information would reach the jury. That goes to show you how ignorant you are about trial procedures.

You are directed by a Witness Service volunteer to a safe waiting area as Dan enters the courtroom. The volunteer, a fairly young man, answered some of your questions regarding court procedures. 

Now you knew that usually the Persecutor would handle the accusation but, because this was a special case involving monsterkind, they would let Dan do that work. He was sort of appointed as the monster persecutor, in a way, as well as defense lawyer. As soon as such problems were solved that would change, though in what ways was yet to be seen.

The jury was also constituted of equal parts of both monsters and humans to further promote impartiality. There were journalists and cameramen inside the courtroom, as well as several curious douches, mostly humans, since most monsters didn’t feel the morbid need to sniff around other people’s business. There seemed to be an exception to that rule, though.

You didn’t really understand what made Undyne, Grillby and MK groan as they were informed of the presence of a certain monster when you had arrived to the building and, though he hadn’t groaned or looked annoyed, Asgore did seem slightly displeased.

If someone would get the nice king that liked all of his subjects to make a slight frown, then either that someone was Toriel or they must be really bad to be around.

Undyne, who had also made it her job to know every monster in the underground, since she was in charge of protecting them, informed you that Jerry -a monster that looked like a enormous balloon had deflated over a sombrero and then covered in leftover soda until it was all sticky and gross- was really as disgusting in personality as he was in physical appearance. You had to admit that while you wouldn’t be purposefully rude to that monster, you didn’t think you would go out of your way to be nice to him, lest that make him think you want him to _stick_ -Really!? another pun!?- around. Of course, if he talked to you, you would feel obliged to reply.

_**Dude. Way too nice!** _

Later, Sans and Alphys entered the courtroom to watch. As you came to learn later, Papyrus had a job interview that showed promise for a potential job, unlike so many before, and Toriel couldn’t have come without Frisk and Flowey and refused to let them witness what MK had to go through when he gave his testimony.

The trial went as expected. The case was presented and the witnesses called. Somehow you felt that the trial was being a bit rushed even as it was happening. Your time came to testify and once again your sanity and moral code were put into question, this time even more harshly than before. You hung in there as best as you could and sometimes Rajani would even help you out. She had to be a lot subtler than she had let herself become around the monsters, which only went to show how much both of you had relaxed around them. This time the judge told you there was no need to show him the file again, since he already saw it and remembered it quite well, which was one of the many proofs that supported your theory that he was rushing the trial. Regardless of him having seen it before or not, he still had to at least demonstrate the formality of looking over the files again.

After your testimony was done with being cross examined, you returned to the waiting room. All there was left was for the judge to listen to Grillby’s testimony and a few character and expert testimonies. MK was long done with his part too and the Witness Service volunteer had provided him with paper and crayons and watched as the child drew.

“Hei…” You said after sitting there in silence for some time. “…is it just me… or is the judge-“

“Rushing the trial? Yeah he is, the demon.” The volunteer sighed. “The mayor doesn’t like all the free publicity all the pro-monster groups are getting out of it, and since there is the rumor that he had some dirt on the judge I figure that’s why. Serves the bastard right.”

“You really shouldn’t say that word in front of the kid.” You pointed it out.

The man winced at his own mistake and apologized.

“So yeah… The other trial, regarding all the other unsolved cases, is already going to be BIG. That one he won’t be able to rush through. And kids always sway the opinions of the masses so he’s trying to cut this one short.”

Grillby rejoined you in the room as the usher came to get the next witness.

It was only after dinner time that the final verdict was announced with the trio being declared as guilty, despite all their effort in trying to discredit you, MK and Grillby.

Undyne, who had gone to sit with Asgore, Sans and Alphys, came to get you, carrying a sleepy Alphys on her back, and you joined the others as you skirted around the crowd, trying to not get noticed. Apparently, they had left the building through a side entrance.

“……It’s finally over……” Grillby commented in relief and he stretched in a very uncharacteristic way.

“We should really celebrate this victory! Fuhuhuhuhuh!”

“uh, undyne, not that i wouldn’t say yes to that idea, but alphys looks like she can’t even _scale_ the front step of the bar. ”

“NGAAAAH! Stop it with the fish puns!!!”

“Actually… that one could also be considered a law pun since justice is represented as a blindfolded woman with a sword and a scale. As in the measuring kind of scale.” You pointed out and Sans’ eyes literally turned into starts, surprising you to no end.

“i didn’t think anyone would get that one. finally, someone got the _appeal_ of its complexity. ”

“Sans, as much as I would like to comb my brains for puns I just really need some grub right now.” You told him.

For once you felt bad for not being that good of a punster. He had seemed so happy when you noticed his double pun. He didn’t seem to mind your rejection much, which relieved you greatly.

“it’s ok, everyone is a bit f _law_ ed anyway so i won’t take it personally.”

“Thanks.”

“I’ll be taking Kid home.” Asgore said picking the child up.

“I-I-I’ll go with you. I’m a b-b-bit too t-tired for partying and MK n-needs one of us a-around.” Alphys slurred as she tried to get down from Undyne’s back. “You go have fun, my sweet nereid.”

Everyone exchanged a look of surprise at the nickname aside from Dan, that didn’t know them long enough to realize how out of character that was, and Undyne that went from blue to red in a span of a second.

“Yeah… ok… You really should catch some sleep. I won’t take too long.” She replied kissing the dinosaur woman’s forehead.

You were feeling really awkward, just like you were watching something you shouldn’t about a couple’s intimate moments.

Dan was the first to leave the scene, this time it was clear that he realized that there were definitely too many people there, and that it would remain to be so unless everyone but the two female monsters left.

Finally, the tender moment ended and Alphys went with the king and the child.

“She has been working too hard. This was the last afternoon off she might have in a long while. She really should have spent it at home watching anime.” Undyne commented.

With that said, Sans teleported you four to the bar. Grillby quickly took over his usual spot on the counter as you, Undyne and Sans sat on the stools. You were careful to check the seat for evidence of shenanigans… Undyne wasn’t.

You laughed at her outraged expression when a fart noise sounded and thanked Grillby as he took your orders and put your choice of drinks in front of you. You noticed Sans loosening the cap on his ketchup a bit. Was he trying to prank you into getting ketchup all over your food? Good thing you weren’t very fond of it. Instead of pointing it out, you focused back on Undyne’s retort.

“SANS! REALLY!?!?”

“what? pranks are an _arresting_ subject! I can’t help but to put them to _practice_. ”

“Urgh!”

“don’t like my pranks? i don’t _judge_ you! ” 

Just as Undyne got ready to reply to Sans’ provocations you felt liquid slap your shoulder with some reasonable force and turned, spilling San’s ketchup all over the bar counter with your elbow. You saw the asshole that did it with a freaky smirk on his face as you sent him a disgusted sneer at his antics. What even was his deal?

And then you heard the scream.

Grillby, who had just brought your food during the pun war, was screaming bloody murder. You looked back and saw half his face as well as his chest sizzling and smoking. Those bastards had hurt your friend…

He was screaming so loud. _Oh god no not again please not again help no please . . ._

Ketchup spilled across the dark wooden counter, strikingly red. _. . .god please no please oh god oh god no please help please . . ._

Water soaking your shoulder, dripping to the floor. _. . .no please no no no no help please someone help . . ._

 

Screams

 

Red

 

Water

 

Screams

Red

Water

Screams red water

Screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water

Screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water screams red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red water cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain red drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched cries of pain blood drenched . . . . . . 

_You woke up with your head ringing._

_You were covered in **water**. It **drenched** your clothes._

_The **red blood** looked purple under the oceanarium lights._

_You could hear distant, blood curdling **screams** all around you. They were **cries of pain** that would forever haunt you._

_The attacker wasn’t there. . ._

_Wait. . ._

_N o . . ._

_H e i s r i g h t b e h i n d y o u . . ._

_**T** h **e**    a **t** t **a** c **k** e **r**    i **s**    r **i** g **h** t    **b** e **h** i **n** d    **y** o **u** ! **!** !_

 

***You feel the terror clouding up your mind.**

*** A sense of dread fills your soul.**

***…**

***Everything fades into darkness.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So have some angst and a cliff hanger ;P
> 
> (As for everything else, I had initially planed for a more nervewracking trial experience but then got bored while trying to write it XC so I decided to keep it short and tasteful instead of dragged out and cringy at best.)
> 
> (Also tickles, and belly fluff XP)


	27. Chapter 26: It Comes Awake and I Can't Control it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Udyne saves the day and Sans helps you sleep at night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I couldn't leave you in the suspense for much longer, especially since it isn't the big reveal yet (That won't be until 11 of November in the story and it's like three to four days until Halloween). Also because I was curious about your input about this chapter.

\--Undyne’s POV—

 

A captain’s duty, even a former one, was to their people. That was something she had always believed in. That was why, as soon as water had hit Grillby and she saw the culprits, she immediately summoned her spears. That was has knee jerk reaction to any danger to those she protected.

“What!? You going to attack an unprotected human while surrounded by more monsters? Go ahead! That ought to look great on tomorrows newspapers’ headlines.” One of the assholes, the one with the water bottle, spoke up.

Of the three of them, he was the more overconfident one while the others looked like they just wanted to bolt right after the attack was done. They probably hadn’t intended on poking the bear with the monsters.

But as much as she regretted admitting to it, the smug asshole was right. But she still could apprehend him, though.

“You aren’t going ANYWHERE! Doggamy, call the police!”

“H-hey, man. This wasn’t a part of the plans.” One of the cowards complained.

“Yeah dude, let’s bolt.”

The three turned to run, the scaredy-cats managed to get away, since they were close to the door by that point but the smug douche was too far away and had his path blocked by the K9 unit of her guard. Undyne itched to use her powers to turn his soul green so he couldn’t escape but knew that the humans disliked whenever she used that particular power. Instead, when he broke a glass bottle and got ready to use it as a weapon, she decided that she was very much capable of taking him on without the use of magic.

But before she could do anything other than to change her stance in expectation of a mad dash, a blur flashed by her.

It was Miranda, who grabbed the hand that held the broken bottle by the wrist. Undyne looked back at Sans, who was sitting by Grillby, trying to get him to drink some monster alcohol to heal him. The skeleton seemed as surprised as her. Undyne looked back at Miranda, knowing that she was a great fighter, but still worried of what might happen to her anyway.

“Let go of me, bitch!” Smug douche swung a fist at her head but she let go of his wrist to dodge, only to clasp it again before he swung the bottle at her and then twist it in a fast and harsh gesture. “ARGH! MY WRIST!”

The broken bottle fell from his grasp and his other hand clutched his now free and broken wrist. Undyne looked at Miranda to congratulate her but her words died on her lips once she laid eyes on her face.

Her expression was blank and her eyes looked so dead that they sent violent shivers down her back. In fact, it looked as if she wasn’t even there, as if she was somewhere else in her mind. Somewhere where there was no light. Her dull eyes were looking at Smug without really seeing him.

Undyne thought she would stop at that but she didn’t. She grabbed a handful of his hair near the scalp and tugged him towards her, proceeding to knee him in the junk and then dropping her elbow of the back of his exposed neck when he crumpled forward.

He fell to the floor with a grunt and was trying to stand back up, but Miranda was already getting ready to hit him before he even got a fighting chance, and that wasn’t like her at all.

“she’s losing hp!” Sans shouted suddenly.

“WHAT!? But she wasn’t even hit!” Undyne protested as Miranda proceeded to kick Smug in the ribs.

“stop the fight! something is wrong with miranda! she’s still losing hp and her aura is almost absent as if she’s falling down!”

Could that really be true? How? 

When Sans paused his ministrations to his friend to check on them and still saw her standing there dumbfounded he shouted.

“c’mon, undyne, get a move on!”

That managed to snap her out of her shock. She could seek explanations to all that madness later. For now, she had a duty. The duty to protect her people. And Miranda was one of her people now, regardless of her being a human or not.

She grabbed the human woman from under her armpits and lifted her off the dude. Smug was quite beaten and, though she very much liked the thought of him being in pain, she knew that leaving him like this would just invite more trouble for monsterkind.

But before they healed him, she first ordered for her K9 unit to have him secured to a chair. Last thing they needed was a repeat of his earlier outburst. Miranda was still struggling to attack Smug’s half unconscious shape so she had someone else heal the douche up as she tried to calm her down.

“Miranda! Stop! He can’t do anything now. Come on.” She said as patiently as she could.

But no matter what she said, Miranda was unreachable and kept struggling. Because Sans was busy helping Grillby, Undyne had no choice but to draw out Miranda’s stats to see how her HP was.  
.  
.

> ****
> 
> “Miranda”
> 
> ****
> 
> LV 1
> 
> ****
> 
> HP 1837/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> AT 27 (0)___EXP: 1
> 
> ****
> 
> DF 24 (0)
> 
> ****
> 
> *AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (...see more)
> 
> ****
> 
> *Miranda’s soul is screaming.
> 
> ****  
> 

.  
.  
.

**HP 1828/2058**

**HP 1819/2058**

Shit.

Undyne didn’t know what was wrong with Miranda but that definitely wasn’t good at all! In fact, that intensity of soul screaming was incredibly bad news. 

Gerson had once told her that, in the first few weeks of being trapped underground, a lot of monsters had given in to despair. He told her that their souls began screaming louder and louder as they looked more and more catatonic and eventually fell down. In the end, they all had become dust.

Undyne had never actually witnessed such an event. Having dealt with the amalgamantes, Alphys had and she said it was awful. But Alphys wasn’t there to help her right now.

At the moment, only Miranda’s stats were visible, but Undyne was sure that if she drew the soul out of her, it would screech so loud it would drown out the commotion that the now revived human was making.

“COME ON, MIRANDA, SNAP OUT OF IT!” She snapped, trying to shake the woman awake.  
.

> ****
> 
> HP 1803/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> *Something in Miranda reacted.
> 
> ****
> 
> *But…
> 
> ****
> 
> *Miranda’s soul is still screaming.
> 
> ****

.  
Miranda stopped moving altogether in reaction to Undyne’s actions.

She’d reacted? To what!?

“MIRANDA!!” She screamed louder.  
.

> ****
> 
> HP 1796/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> *Miranda plunges deeper into darkness.
> 
> ****
> 
> *Miranda’s soul is screaming.
> 
> ****

.

Darts! It wasn’t her shouting that Miranda had reacted to. Then what had made her react!!!??? In frustration, Undyne punched the floor. A piece of wood shot up to the ceiling and then fell down, hitting Miranda in the forehead.

…

Fuck.  
.

> ****
> 
> HP 1789/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> *Something in Miranda reacted.
> 
> ****
> 
> *But…
> 
> ****
> 
> *Miranda’s soul is still screaming.
> 
> ****

.

Pain? Was Miranda reacting to pain? Well, that she could do.

Undyne slapped Miranda lightly, not wanting to have her lose any more HP.  
.

> ****
> 
> HP 1779/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> *Something in Miranda reacted.
> 
> ****
> 
> *But…
> 
> ****
> 
> *Miranda’s soul is still screaming.
> 
> ****

.

Damn! Too light!

Undyne slapped her a bit harder.  
.

> ****
> 
> HP 1772/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> *Something in Miranda reacted.
> 
> ****
> 
> *The screams lessen a bit.
> 
> ****

.

It was working, but not fast enough. Undyne let go of her fear of hurting her and slapped even harder.  
.

> ****
> 
> HP 1768/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> *Something in Miranda reacted.
> 
> ****
> 
> *The screams lessen considerably.
> 
> ****

.

Not enough. Harder!  
.

> ****
> 
> HP 1764/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> *Miranda is reacting to the pain.
> 
> ****
> 
> *The screams lessen some more.
> 
> ****

.

“COME ONE, PUNK! SNAP OUT OF IT! I can’t slap you any harder or you’ll be seriously hurt.”

Slap.  
.

> ****
> 
> HP 1764/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> *Miranda is unsure of what is real and what isn’t.
> 
> ****
> 
> *The screams lessen some more.
> 
> ****

.

“Almost there, punk. Come on! You’ll be alright!”

Slap.  
.

> ****
> 
> HP 1764/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> *Miranda seems to become aware of reality.
> 
> ****
> 
> *The screams stop.
> 
> ****

.

“That’s it punk. Wake up.” This time Undyne didn’t slap her hard. Instead she shook her vigorously. Miranda’s head bobbed with the movement.

“Wha… Undyne? Stoooop.” Miranda groaned.  
.

> ****
> 
> HP 1764/2058
> 
> ****
> 
> *Miranda is awake.
> 
> ****
> 
> *She feels exhausted.
> 
> ****

.

“Are you ok, punk?”

“Yea- What happened to my HP!?” She said groggily as she noticed the stats floating in front of her.

Realizing that the worst was over, Undyne let go of her stats and they vanished once again.

“Dunno, punk. Wish I did. You just kept losing HP and wouldn’t react to anything other than my slaps. And before that you were attacking Smug over there like crazy.”

“That… doesn’t surprise me…” She looked ashamed and refused to look her in the face. “I’m sorry for the trouble.”

“Nah, it’s fine, punk. Many of us wanted to get the asshole. I’m just surprised because you weren’t acting normal.”

“Yeah…”

“So… What the hell, punk! What even was this!”

“I… It was… just my PTSD acting up. A flashback.”

“To what?”

“I… don’t want to talk about it.” Before Undyne could retort again she interrupter her. “How’s Grillby?”

Only the urgency on her voice made Undyne let up on her interrogation. If not for that, she would be getting to the bottom of it all right this moment.

“Come and see for yourself.”

Miranda hadn’t needed further prodding and quickly stood up and wobbled hastily towards the other side of the counter. She looked shaky on her legs. Undyne heard her gasp as she saw the fire elemental. Undyne had her good share of injuries in training mishaps, but even she had to admit that Grillby’s face wasn’t looking too good.

“W-why isn’t monsterfood healing him?” Miranda asked, voice trembling. “Shouldn’t monsterfood heal him?”

“it’s a bit more complicated than that. any other injury and he would have been fine. but a water based injury is for grillby what alkali injuries are for humans.” Sans explained as he got Grillby to drink some more magic alcohol via straw.

“Alka-what now?” Undyne interrupted.

“it’s like acid burns, but worse.”

“Oh, ok. It’s nerd stuff.”

“anyway, like i was saying. this is not an injury that can be easily fixed immediately with just some magic food. but the burn in his chest is almost completely gone, since it’s closest to his soul. the face is all that’s left.”

“If only I was a bit more to the side…”

That last sentence really snapped at Undyne’s attention.

“Punk, you can’t possibly be blaming yourself for not knowing a bunch of assholes entered the bar!”

Miranda flinched at Undyne’s accusation. Hammer, meet nail. Big time. How could that dingus blame herself for something she had no way of knowing? It’s like she expects to keep everyone safe flawlessly! No one is that perfect! How could she blame herself for that?

“……not… your fault……” Grillby said weakly.

He was very much still in pain and it was clear that the burns in his facial flames made it hard for him to speak, thus why he had chosen to remain silent so far.

“Don’t say that! I should have been more aware of my surroundings. If I had…” Suddenly Miranda’s eyes seemed to become more hollow of light, as if she was looking once again to whatever she’d been seeing before, whatever that was.

Well, Undyne certainly wouldn’t allow that. NOT ON HER WATCH! But Miranda wouldn’t accept her just saying so straight off. Undyne would have to be sneaky about it. Or as sneaky as she could ever be.

“Are you telling me that I suck at my job!?”

“What!?” At least that surprised her enough to snap out of the dark place she was sinking into again.

“’Cause it sounds a lot like you are.”

“N-no! I didn’t say that!”

“No, you were saying that you should have been aware enough to notice the assholes, but then what does that say about me? I used to be the captain of the Royal Guard. Still am, at heart. Grillby is one of the people I’m supposed to protect. Doesn’t that mean that I failed him too?”

“… This is different.”

“IT SURE IS, PUNK! Unlike you, I am actually responsible for monsterkind’s safety.” Undyne reinforced. Sans and Grillby had decided to let her handle this, but were still watching in concern.

“…” Miranda remained silent. It seemed she did see a bit of how ridiculous she was being, but it still wasn’t enough. 

Undyne could tell that, deep inside, she was still taking the misplaced guilt all over herself. It was easy to tell, especially after the experience Undyne had of helping both Alphys and MK. Undyne couldn’t help but wonder if this was the results from what her ex-boyfriend did to her. 

Perhaps in part, the part related with her negative feelings of self-worth, it was. But Undyne sensed there was more to it. Something Miranda had yet to tell them. The reason why she knew so much stuff about PTSD.

Grillby patted her head even if moving hurt. She’d been once again to distracted in her self-blame to notice the movement until contact was made.

“Grillby, don’t move, you are still hurting!” Her worry for him seemed to outshine whatever funky mood she was in.

“……not your fault……” He insisted.

“Let’s just forget the fault thing, ok? Just concentrate on getting better!”

Grillby accepted another alcoholic beverage from Sans. Alcohol laced with magic was the best sort of magical food that could be given to a flame monster. The fact that he wasn’t fully healed yet spoke volumes of how severe the wounds were. Sans did the right thing by not explaining in full detail how severe they were. Whatever that alka-thingie was, this wound had been much more serious than that. If it was taking Grillby this long to heal, the water must have grazed the soul. And that was something that Miranda didn’t need to know, especially if she was already this worried.

The two boys that ran away returned with police officers, probably worried about their friend. It was either that or the police officers that Undyne had told her guards to call had caught them running away.

Immediately Smug started spouting how there was a ‘crazy bitch’ that tried to kill him and was human. While the officers were distracted with the ravings of the tied man, Undyne spoke to Sans.

“Take her home. I’ll deal with this.” She turned to the young green fire elemental who was bringing some more alcoholic beverages from stock. “Take his place.”

Fuku nodded obediently, probably understanding how many ways things could go wrong if Miranda stayed.

Undyne had expected for Miranda to put up a bit of a fight. She seemed the type to want to relay her version of the fact herself, even if it didn’t bode well for her. The fact that she didn’t react much to Sans grabbing her wrist and teleporting her out spoke volumes of her current mental state.

With a sigh, Undyne turned to the officers, who still surrounded Smug. She exchanged a glance with all the other customers before finally drawing the attention of the men.

“Sorry I haven’t come talk to you so far. I was busy stabilizing the bar owner. He seems to be reasonably ok, right now. Still not fully healed. Were you the officers dispatched by 911?”

“No, mam. In fact, we weren’t even aware that our services had been requested. We responded to those two flagging us down on the streets and came to see what the commotion was about.” One of the officers said.

“Is there any reason why this man is restrained? You mentioned that the bar owner was injured.” The other questioned.

“Smug over here is restrained because not only did he attack the bar owner unprovoked and threatened to attack the other customers with a broken bottle, he also seems to be a danger to himself. His foot got caught on one of that table’s legs and he hit his head pretty hard. We tried to heal him, but ever since he hit his head he has been raving about some human woman attacking him.” She said. She didn’t really like lying, but it was the only way to ensure true justice prevailed. Looking around she saw the very unnoticeable nod that the other monsters gave, accepting her cover story. “The only human woman that comes around here often enough was at a trial today and hasn’t shown up yet. She was probably tired and went home already. Perhaps he saw her some other day and is hallucinating her presence here today? She’s not the kind of woman to just attack someone, though.”

“YOU LYING CUNT! I SWEAR ON THE NAME OF MY GRANDFATHER I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND KILL YOU AND THAT BITCH MYSELF!” 

Undyne almost snorted. Smug was making her job easier.

“Did any of you two saw this human woman?” The police officer asked the two cowards.

“Um… we weren’t really paying attention. We were pretty far away from Brandon and… She could have been there.” One said.

“To be honest it was a bit hard to see anything after Brandon tossed the water and everyone panicked, dude. But she could have been there.” The other agreed.

Good, neither had seen her clearly.

“Water?” One of the officers asked.

“Yes. The monster attacked just happens to be a flame elemental and almost died because of it. Thankfully, he has a big supply of magic food, since not many monsters here are good enough at healing magic for the sort of injuries he has. He is over there, behind the bar, still recovering. Part of the water grazed his soul. He shouldn’t be moved until he is fully healed.”

The other officer approached the bar as Undyne talked to the one that had questioned her. As soon as he saw the flame elemental he gasped in horror. Undyne looked over the counter and saw there was still a big angry gash on Grillby’s face. Fuku took out her phone and showed the officer some photos. 

Had she taken pictures of her father before he was healed? That was pretty smart and gutsy. Or perhaps Sans had asked her to. It seemed a bit farfetched that she’d thought of it by herself, considering how close to death her father had been. At seeing the new evidence, the officer exchanged a horror filled glance with his partner.

Smug was arrested and charged with attempted murder. And the other two were taken as well for being accomplices. 

As soon as they cleared the bar of all the customers so as to gather any evidence necessary, and she’d helped Fuku take her father upstairs to rest after he was done healing, Undyne finally left. She hid in an alley and called Sans for a lift home. Usually she wouldn’t have done so but she was incredibly tired and was worried about Miranda.

“How’s she?” Undyne asked as soon as Sans appeared.

“she’s insisting she’s ok. pretending as if her life depends on it.” He said. “if i hadn’t seen her before taking her home, i wouldn’t even have realized it. all her animals seemed to have sensed her mood though, they immediately flocked to her, and not in the normal way her dogs usually do. they went calmly and nestled all around her. she probably had trained them to help her. how’s grillbs?

“He’s fully healed, but the process took a lot of his energy. He’s sleeping. The bar might be closed for some time for evidence gathering… if someone asks, Miranda was never there, capich?”

“perfectly.”

“Let’s go.”

Once at home, Undyne realized what Sans had meant. If she didn’t know better, Miranda would have fooled her perfectly. Most everyone had already gone to bed but for Toriel and the kids, who wanted nothing more than to find excuses not to go to sleep yet. Miranda was calmly drinking tea, the same mix she’d given everyone when MK had that nightmare in anime night, some weeks ago. 

She chatted with Toriel happily and sometimes played along with the kids. Undyne wanted to confront her and Sans seemed to want the same thing but decided to wait for the others to go to bed. It took some time but eventually the kids were gone, Toriel with them to read them a story.

“Miranda.” Undyne called her. Miranda’s hand trembled a bit but aside from that no other signs of her distress were visible.

“Yes, Undyne?”

“Grillby is fully healed now.” Undyne said. “He’ll be completely fine by morning.”

It was better to start off by the positive stuff. That way there would be some more positives to counter the negatives. Miranda stayed silent for a second.

“Thank you for that.” She finally said.

“Miranda… what-”

“Idon’twanttotalkaboutit!” She spouted so fast that Undyne only understood her barely. What she didn’t quite get, she could infer by the context.

“look, not wanting to pry, but you lost hp with whatever happened.” Sans pointed out.

That seemed to make it worse somehow. Undyne could tell because her facial expression twisted for a bit. Then something in her changed completely, even her position.

“I didn’t know about the HP thing, but it’s not the first time this shit has happened.” Casual bad words meant they were talking to Rajani now. It was still confusing for anyone without the ability to read her aura, like Sans. “She’ll be fine in the morning. Trust me. But right now, she just wants to be fucking left alone. Don’t fucking ask anymore, ok? And don’t mention the HP shit again, you hear me, Cueball? She is blaming herself for hurting me, it seems. This was not the way I wanted her to worry about her health.”

Sans sighed in resignation.

“you go to bed, undyne. you have work in the morning. i’ll stick around.”

Reluctantly, Undyne agreed and went upstairs. Once she entered her room she cuddled up to Alphys and MK and hoped that Rajani was right.

 

\--Sans’ POV—

 

Rajani had complained a lot at him staying there. But eventually accepted his presence, especially after he promised not to question Miranda anymore that night. That woman was very protective of Miranda. Sans could cope with that. He, more than anyone, understood what was like to want to protect someone.

Miranda didn’t want to go to her bed. Instead, she wanted to stay in the living room and watch some movies. Sans could get behind that too. 

When sleep finally took her, it wasn’t long before she had nightmares. At first, he hadn’t noticed. It wasn’t until Dusk had started licking her face and batting her paw against the bridge of her nose that he noticed how tense she’d gotten.

He drew her near and tried to remember how she’d helped him. He remembered her holding him tight. What else…

A song.

She’d sung a song.

What song was it? He wasn’t sure.

Well, perhaps he could sing something else. What was that song she’d shown him? The Midnight Crew?

“I hate a moral coward, one who lacks a manly spark.  
I just detest a man afraid to go home in the dark.  
I always spend my evening where there's women, wine, and song!  
But like a man, I always bring my little wife along!”

“I'm a member of the Midnight Crew.  
I'm a night owl, and a wise bird too.  
Home with the milk in the morning,  
Singing the same old song!  
Rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun,  
Early to bed, and you'll miss all the fun,  
Bring your wife and trouble, it will never trouble you!  
Make her a member of the Midnight Crew!”

His voice was too low to comfortably sing that song but she was calming down visibly. So he just kept on singing. She eventually hugged him right back and, even after the song was over, she wouldn’t let go. 

She never woke up that night.

And she didn’t get another nightmare either.

He would know.

…

There was no excuse for spending the whole night awake, unable to sleep just because a cute girl was hugging him.

…

…did he just think of her as cute!?

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> People reacting to a PTSD flashback can either act like they are being attacked (or defending someone) or freeze up. Not always do they remember everything accurately during a flashback, adapting the environment around and making it fit the new scenario For exemple they might 'remember' the presence of a person that is in the current environment that actually wasn't even there in the real event that caused the PTSD in the first place. Which is why in the last chapter Miranda 'remembered' suddenly that the attacker was there.  
> I had foreshadowed this PTSD attack (and the one to come) on previous chapters (to remind yourself go check chapter 5.Chapter 4: Come Morning Light in the very begining and chapter 16.Chapter 15: Do You Know Your Anime… Rah hey? right before MK wakes everyone with his own nightmare.  
> some of you might have also noticed I'm editing the chapter differently (Cellphone readers might not notice. I can't see the special editing on my phone for some reason ad so might you. basically Sans and Papyrus finally have their fonts for speach)  
> This new way of editing is all thanks to this tutorial by La_Temperanza: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5434577  
> So a big shout out to her for taking the time to present us with new ways of editing the chapters.
> 
> hope you enjoyed Unyde's POV.


	28. Chapter 27: A Legally Required Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You wind down a bit from your previous day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I was looking forward to writing what will be the next chapter. initially it was supposed to go here but I realized that Miranda needed to wind down a bit before facing the madness that is the next chapter XD I know what's comin'. RTNightmare knows what's comin'. And some of you might know what's comin'... and it's a _bloody_ mess (Badum tss!) ;P
> 
> until then have some more fluff and filler.
> 
> (p.s.: Paps job is inspired in this job here: https://www.upwork.com/job/Puzzle-Designer-Wanted_~01a03f96ca89610772/ )
> 
> (p.p.s.: Also see end notes for the animation videos that they are watching and a quick shortening on what is going on in them)

You had expected to have a night filled with nightmares when you woke up the following day. Instead you were once again cuddled up against the short skeleton but this time you had dogs, as well as cats, surrounding you.

…

Somehow you had the Midnight Crew song in your head and you felt like singing along.

What a strange song to have in your mind when waking up.

You tried to sneak out from Sans’ arms. You were sure he needed his sleep. That position didn’t look too comfortable. But as soon as you moved even just a little bit, he opened his sockets to peer down at you.

“ah, you ‘wake now. sleep good?” He mumbled almost incoherently.

“Yes I did.” You replied.

“good. good.” He took hold of you and now you were serving as his pillow instead.

“Sans! Let me up!”

“five more minutes…”

“Sans!”

“juss lemme sleep…”

“Geez, you silly skeleton!”

You somehow managed to sneak away from bellow him and went to the kitchen. It seemed it was too early for anyone to be up so you made breakfast for all of them. It would do Toriel some good to be spared this morning too.

You had expected for Sans to go to sleep but when you turned from preparing dough for crêpes you saw him sitting on one of the chairs, face glued to the table as if he couldn’t muster up the strength to lift it.

You took out the ketchup bottle from the condiment section on the fridge and put it in front of him. All things considered, you were pretty famished. Looking back, you never even got the chance to eat your dinner and neither had he. You doubted Undyne had stopped to eat anything either.

Sans looked up at the bottle and took a big swig of it, before going back to the same position as before with a muffled ‘thanks’ in reply. He looked so tired… had he slept at all?... Was he awake the whole night to take care of you?...

Instead of cooking the crêpes right away you decide to cook something more filling for him, first. Perhaps for you and Undyne too? You take out a few eggs and slices of bacon. That’s how the British make their breakfast, right? Oh, and beans too, but the only kind of bean you like is Mister Bean, so you decide to skip those. You add some toast to the menu.

Once the fragrant scent of the sizzling bacon hit Sans’ nose bone he looked up again and his socket widened at the banquet you were preparing. You split the sourly part of the breakfast by three dishes, put one aside for Undyne and placed the other two on the table.

“gee, thanks. why all the food, though?”

“Neither of us ate dinner last night. Also… thank you. You know… for taking care of me this night.”

“oh! don’t mention it.” He blushed momentarily before turning his expression into a more laid back one. “why wouldn’t i help an _egg_ xellent friend such as you?”

“Why must you be so silly? I’m trying to seriously thank you right here.” You complained, but you were smiling. Dammit, this man never let you remain serious for long… and you honestly liked it. At times all of the seriousness just wore you down and this would have been one of those.

“what can i say, i _fry_ my best to avoid serious situations. ”

“Dammit! I was gonna use that one next!” You laughed.

“one does not simply beat the punmaster.” Even his body language was the same as the meme as he said that.

“Oh, you’re doing memes now!? SANS, Y U NO TALK NORMAL!!!” You tried to mimic the facial expression but probably looked stupid. Still, the hands where in the same position!

You continued mimicking memes and blurting out puns until you heard people coming down the steps. You both had finished the sourly part of your meal and you put those dishes in the sink, getting ready to start your crêpes.

The day proceeded as usual. You even went to work like the previous day hadn’t been severely taxing. Deep down you knew you should still be freaking out about your flashback. Usually you would have been, but for some reason you were fine, if a bit more flinch-prone than usual. Loud noises startled you, as well as some other minor things, but, considering how much worse it usually was when you had those flashbacks, you felt spectacularly great.

Your work in the Halloween special was done and your team leader would be gifting all of you with a few days off to recover from the animation hell. Days off that wouldn’t be taken out from your vacation days. Your boss was great. Just as you were getting ready to leave, you were surprised by Sans showing up at your work place.

“Hey. What are you doing here?”

“just came to get you. thought you could use a ride home.”

“Oh! That’s nice of you. You’ll need to wait a moment, though. I need to finish some things up for another animation.”

“that’s alright. I’ll just hang around with the guys.”

It seemed he was looking around for familiar faces but only Greg was there from the ones he had met last time. The people that he knew had already taken their leave just moments before. The others, who hadn’t been there when the monsters had visited you, gawked at Sans presence. Sans walked up to Greg like no one’s business and stroke up a conversation easily.

You wondered if Sans was still concerned with your state of being. Sure, you would have some nightmares in the days to come and still react physically at loud noises but that didn’t really worry you. You were pretty much used to nightmares on a nightly basis and flinching meant survival in most cases, even if it was in an excessive quantity.

Once you were done you insisted on going down to the entrance, like a normal person, before teleporting away. As you expected, Dusk was there.

“what’s the cat doing here?” Sans asked, clearly surprised by your feline companion’s presence.

“She’s been doing this for a long time. I think it’s her way of taking care of me. If she hadn’t been doing this, you and your brother would have never found me that first time. She was the one that lead you to me, wasn’t she?”

“huh. never though that cats were capable of _feline_ this protective over their owners. ”

“Well, not all of them do. Cats are emotionally smart animals, meaning their owners need to earn their trust before they allow them to do certain things like petting their bellies and such. That also means they dislike blindly obeying orders. I guess my Dusk trusts me enough that she would go as far as assuring my safety.” You explained picking your cat up before holding out a hand to Sans.

“come to think of it, i’m remembering that you always seemed to have her with you when you returned home these past weeks.”

“She’s been picking me up all those days. Sometimes I worry. Such a small kitty making her way to my workplace all alone. But she’s her own lady, capable of her own decisions.”

“you do realize she’s a regular cat, right?”

Now, that bugged you big time. You tucked you hand back at your side.

“She’s family!” You said a bit bitingly. Then, realizing how harsh you had sounded, you added. “They all are. They took care of me when nobody else would.”

After a silent pause, Sans spoke again.

“hey, i didn’t know. sorry. there’s no need to throw a _hissy_ fit, though. ”

“Sans, really!?”

“what? I’m just sayin’ that getting mad about something so small would be _cat_ astrophic.”

“You absolute silly goose!” You commented, but there was no offense in the tone, just amusement. Damn this man!

“you’re smilin’.”

“Yes. Yes I am!” You concede finally extending your hand again. He takes it and, in a flash, you are both home once more.

“Hey, welcome back, nerds. Sans, you’re just in time to explain even more shit to me! I was just about to start watching the next part.” Undyne said. 

Curious, you peeked at the screen of her laptop over her shoulder and realized that Undyne was already on ‘Act 5(Act2) – Part 18’ of the Voxus ‘Lets Read Homestuck’ you had shown her.

“When did you get so far ahead!?” You asked, honestly surprised.

“Hey, just because you were working until you flopped doesn’t mean we didn’t have free time.” Undyne commented and you did realize that, being as busy you had been lately, you hadn’t even noticed what the others did on their free time. “Alphys has already watched the whole thing and is reading the still un-dubbed part of the story. Usually she explains the things to me but because she’s going to be so busy I’m bugging that nerd over there.”

Sans sighed resignedly at her pointing his way and joined her on the couch. You did the same, eager to see their reactions. Undyne hit play.

“That’s my favorite character.” You point out at Undyne.

“Which of the Jades? Dog Jade or Human Jade” Undyne asked.

“Human Jade of course. Dog Jade is just… lets not even go there…”

“Whoa! Is Human Jade slapping the shit out of Dog Jade!? You go girl! Teach that bitch some responsibility!”

You and Sans snorted.

“What?” Undyne asked, pausing the video again.

“you just called _dog_ jade a _bitch_. ” Sans pointed out, snorting again.

“Urgh! I didn’t even mean it.!

“That’s what makes it funnier!” You point out, smiling wickedly.

“You have been spending way too much time with Sans.” Was the only reply as she turned back to the video.

When Karkat entered the picture Rajani immediately whooped.

“That’s my fave character! KK for the win!”

“Really? You like the shouty one?” Undyne asked.

“Are you seriously surprised that Rajani of all people likes Karkat? Besides, this next scene is what made us ship the two together.”

After that short tidbit you watched in silence, sometimes Undyne having to pause just to clear some things up with you and Sans about the story. After a completely absurd dream sequence, in which you found yourself having to translate Morse code for both Undyne and Sans to understand, you reached a [S] file named Wake. It had the best music ever. You observed them as they both watched the animation. 

Anyone who hadn’t watched or read Homestuck so far wouldn’t understand jack shit of what was going on. I mean, a dog with wings murdering a bunch of horned people? One of such horned people laying in a red circle of stone, seemingly burning to death only to wake up with a different outfit and fairy wings? A robot version of that person exploding? And the orange clad horned fairy taunting and killing the giant horned kid with robotic legs?

Good thing they knew what the story was about.

Sans was actually enjoying the music that went with the animation a lot. They had used the original music in the [S] file for the dubbed version. 

“that music was cool!” Sans commented at the end.

“It’s called Megalovania, if I’m not mistaken. A guy named Toby Fox used to help the webcomic’s creator and this music is sort of a brad of his work. He also used it on a game he made based on Earthbound. It’s pretty catchy.”

“seems like the perfect song for giving someone a bad time.”

“You mean, like a fight sequence or when threatening a hapless and homeless young adult woman in fear of her hurting anyone despite she only having saved people so far?” You asked teasingly.

“you… still remember that?”

“How could I ever forget. Your reaction to my singing was pretty hilarious, though.”

“Well, how else would the nerd have reacted? It really did come out of nowhere!” Undyne suddenly intervened. “Now stop flirting! I want to understand what they're saying.”

“This is flirting? I may not be experienced in flirting but I’m pretty sure that making others remember bad times isn’t it.” You commented, stone faced, just to annoy her and Undyne threatened to punch your face if you didn’t shut up.

The front door slammed open and Papyrus entered the house cheerfully.

“I THINK I MAY HAVE GOTTEN A JOB!” He announced loudly.

“Really? Awesome! …wait… might have?” You ask.

“WELL, I WENT TO MY INTERVIEW AT A RESTAURANT. FOR SOME REASON THEY DIDN’T LIKE MY WORK METHOD. I ADMIT IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN TOO INTENSE FOR THEM. I AM VERY GREAT AND MY COOKING SKILLS ARE SURE TO INTIMIDADE EVEN THE MOST FOOLHARDY OF CHEFS! NYEHEHEH!” Papyrus said.

…

He had almost set the kitchen on fire, hadn’t he?

“So, what happened next.” Undyne asked.

“THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS DISPIRITED. I HAD THOUGHT THAT, FOR SURE, THIS TIME I WOULD GET THE JOB! SO, I WENT TO THE BEST PLACE TO CHEER UP AFTER SUCH MISFORTUNE. THE PATISSERIE!”

“I wouldn’t have chosen better myself.” You commented.

“INDEED! ONLY I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, COULD HAVE COME UP WITH SUCH A MARVEOULS PLACE TO DROWN MY SORROWS!” He replied. “SINCE I WAS FEELING PRETTY DOWN, I DECIDED TO DESIGN SOME PUZZLES AS I ATE AND THAT CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF THE PEOPLE ON THE NEXT TABLE. THEY SEEMED TO LOOK QUITE BAFFLED AT IT.”

“would you say that they were _puzzled_? ”

“SANS!!!”

“heh.”

“AS I WAS SAYING!” The tall skeleton glared at the short one as if daring him to interrupt. “THEY WERE QUITE BAFFLED AT MY SPEED IN DESIGNING AND CREATING SUCH INTRICATE PUZZLES AND ASKED ME ABOUT HOW HAD I GOTTEN SO SWIFT AT IT. I REPLIED THAT I USED OT CREATE THEM ALL THE TIME IN THE UNDERGROUND AND THEY REQUESTED TO MEET ME AT A LATER DATE. THEY REQUESTED ME TO CREATE EVEN MORE PUZZLES AT SAID DATE AND REQUESTED THAT THEY BE MADE WITH ONLY A PENCIL AND PAPER. I’M NOT ONE TO BACK DOWN FROM A CHALLENGE SO I ACCEPTED. ONLY LATER, AFTER I LEFT THE PATISSERIE, DID I REALIZE THAT MEETING DATE COULD POSSIBLY BE A JOB INTERVIEW.”

“That’s great, Papyrus! Congrats!”

“THANK YOU, SKINNY HUMAN.” He said and hugged you. “I MUST SAY, YOU ARE SMELLING GREAT TODAY.” he said as he set you back down.

Undyne leaned in and sniffed and you cringed away.

“Girl, can you not!”

“Hey, Pap is right! Are you trying to lure someone with that perfume?” She wagged her eyebrows ridiculously, making you laugh.

“The only perfume I could be wearing is Essence du Sweat. I don’t use perfume. Whatever you’re smelling might have rubbed off from one of my female co-workers.”

“Perhaps…” Undyne admitted. “By the way, has Alphys said anything about her project to you? The personal one?”

“You mean she hasn’t told you anything else?”

“She was going to, but never got the time. I’m curious.”

“Nosy.”

“Just tell me!”

“Alright, alright!” You conceded. “She wants to make Rajani a soulbot so that she can speak and act through it to make things less confusing, as you already know. It’ll be a bit like Kyoko’s demons, like a little similar looking demon-bot, only instead of Kyoko’s face, she’s going to recreate mine. She wants to connect a magic antenna or something to my soul on Rajani’s side.”

“… as helpful as that is, are you sure it’s okay to mess around with your soul that much?” Sans asked.

“Hey, if Alphys managed to link a monster soul to a Robot then sure as hell she can give Rajani a body of her own.” Alphys had long confessed how she’d made Mettaton’s body and that he was actually a ghost, which was something he wasn’t very forward about. “She can’t make a big one without the use of the whole soul so it’ll have to be tiny. Like palm-sized sort of tiny.”

“still…”

“Hey, I agreed. She was adamant of the risks I would take by accepting, including having an intimate part of me being handled. She’ll be careful and never touch my soul without my authorization and will always wear gloves when she does.”

“well if you say so.”

“Is it just me or is Sans getting a little protective over our human friend?” Undyne asked Papyrus while wagging her brows some more.

_**Urgh! The Return of the Shipping Sushi. That is a movie I don’t want to watch again.** _

You snorted, tried to hold your laughter back, and ended up failing and actually laughed. The others looked at you like you’d gone insane.

“Sorry, Rajani said something funny.”

“What?”

“Never mind. Go on!”

“No! Now you have to tell me!”

“Ugh! Fine! I said ‘The Return of the Shipping Sushi. That is a movie I don’t want to watch again’. Happy?”

Sans was the one snorting and laughing now. Undyne, obviously, didn’t like it much.

“SO, WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE I GRACED YOU WITH THE BEST NEWS IN EXISTENSE?” Papyrus asked, trying to divert the attention from you.

“Watching Homestuck.”

“OH.” Papyrus’ face immediately fell. “I’LL TAKE MY LEAVE, THEN.”

“What, why?”

“It’s the trolls.” Undyne explained.

“What about the trolls.”

“nothing, they are just too _punny_ for paps’ taste. ”

“Oh. … OH! Yeah! Nepeta, Eridan and Feferi. Cat and fish puns all over their speech. Yeah, Gotcha!” You finally understood.

“the show just gets _pun_ nier with them, if you ask me.” Sans added.

“SANS! THERE’S ALREADY ENOUGH PUNS IN THAT WEBCOMIC, THERE’S NO NEED FOR ANY MORE!”

“paps, there is no such thing as ‘too many puns’.” Sans contradicted.

You merely smiled at the display.

It had been a while since you had such a peaceful day. With all the madness around the trials and the Halloween special, and then yesterday’s Grillby attack you had completely forgotten how great it felt not to be so rushed anymore

After dinner, you decided to pay Grillby a visit. Of course, being a longtime friend of his, Sans wanted to tag along too. Undyne came along just to monitor his health and relay any news she had of his attacker.

You were relieved when Grillby himself came to the door and had no outwardly sign of injury. It was a bit odd seeing him in pajamas, though. He directed you all to his living room but when he tried to play the good host Fuku came along and forced him to sit back down as she took care of it. It was a bit amusing to see them interact.

You didn’t like how closely they were both watching you. You knew they were probably worried about your flashback issue from the previous day, but that didn’t make it bother you any less.

Still you endured it as stoically as possible and tried to make them see you were ok. You seemed to have been able to convince them by the time you had to go back. Seeing Grillby almost completely recovered relieved you in a way you hadn’t expected. Sure, you expected to feel some of it, but not in such an overwhelming way.

You guessed that, after failing so many people you cared about, seeing that even just one not dying due to your failures felt very… redeeming.

You had to cut your visit short since Alphys contacted Undyne about your whereabouts. Apparently, she wanted to do some soul measurements and reactions to several kinds of magic so as to get the most compatible match possible.

Having electrodes being glued to your soul was the weirdest feeling ever. It felt pretty gross, like your whole body was covered in glue instead of a bit of your soul. It felt even grosser for Rajani, since it was her side of the soul, but she kept herself in check.

“O-ok. I think I have enough measurements. I should b-be able to have a functional p-prototype soon.” Alphys informed you as she removed the electrodes from your soul, detaching them as carefully as possible.

It didn’t hurt when they detached, but it still was an uncomfortable feeling.

“How soon will that be?” You asked in return.

“P-probably around Halloween for t-the prototype. The f-f-final product will depend on how it g-goes with the prototype.”

“So… In three days from now?”

“Give or t-take, yes!”

“Ok. Anything else I need to know?”

“N-not really. W-would you like to d-design the outer appearance? I’m sure t-that Rajani would appreciate a shape you both are comfortable with.”

“Nah! I’m fine with the Kyoko demon sort of look. With my face stamped in it.” Rajani said through you.

“Ok. I n-need to go to b-bed now. Good night, M-Miranda.”

That meant it was time to read to the skelebros. You’d already skipped a day of story time, last thing you wanted was to further disappoint Papyrus.

“Good night.” You replied and left towards Papyrus’ bedroom… Where you saw five sleeping bags perfectly aligned on the floor, much to your surprise. Frisk, Flowey and MK were also there.

“SKINNY HUMAN. FRISK HAS INFORMED ME THAT MK WISHED TO GIVE UNDYNE AND ALPHYS SOME PRIVACY SO WE DECIDED TO MAKE A SLUMBER PARTY OF SORTS. AND SINCE WE REALIZED THAT WE’RE IN THE SAME PAGE ON THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS, WE’VE ARRANGED FOR YOU TO JOIN US TONIGHT AFTER STORY TIME.” Papyrus said but there was something slightly off about his words. It wasn’t as noticeable. While usually he sucked at lying, when he really felt the need to, he could be expertly good, like when he pretended not to notice Sans’ exhaustion.

You wondered what he had on his mind this time.

“Are you sure? Wouldn’t you have much more fun without a silly adult woman around to boss you around?” You say, amused at their outraged expressions.

“You aren’t silly! You’re fun to be around!” You were grateful you had found out one of your coworkers actually knew sign language and had the patience to teach you some during your busy days at work. You still didn’t know all the words, but you were getting there.

“Glad that you think so.” You told him. “Still, are you sure you want me intruding on the slumber party?”

“Of course we do, dude!” MK insisted.

“Well, your choice, then”

You were directed to the sleeping bag in the center and immediately MK and Frisk took the sleeping bags on each side of you. Flowey’s pot was placed near Frisk’s pillow. Papyrus laid down near Frisk and Sans next to MK.

You were close to the end if Prisoner of Azkaban. In fact, you were reading just as Hermione revealed she had a Time Turner, enabling her to turn back time. Papyrus thought the new point of view, from an outsider’s perspective, on several of the previous scenes, was refreshing. Flowey had another completely different opinion on the matter, though.

“If they have a time turner, why not go back and keep the bad guy from hurting people. They could go back and kill him, right? Seems pretty stupid to me, not to use that power.”

“Well, think of it this way. Say you go back in time to kill him before he hurts anyone. What happens next?”

“The people he kills don’t get killed?”

“True. That means that Lilly Evans and James Potter, Harry’s parents, would still be alive, right?”

“Yeah!” Flowey said like it was the most obvious thing ever.

You could tell that, in the beginning MK seemed intrigued by that notion as well, but had begun to recognize your tone of voice as meaning you knew something that nobody else did just yet.

“That would mean that Voldemort wouldn’t mean anything to that new Harry Potter, right?”

“I suppose…”

“And what happens when no one in that new timeline goes back to kill Voldemort again? Technically it was a Harry from another timeline that provided that outcome. See? It causes a paradox. Because in this new timeline there’s no need for anyone to go back to stop anyone which in the end undoes what the other Harry did. This also begs the question: What happens to the Harry of the previous timeline? Does he cease to exist because his whole life has been changed and he has no memories of such? Does his timeline remains the same but existing in separate? Food for thought.”

“Ok, I get that it’s more complicated than I made it sound.”

“Further ahead you are going to see that the changes the future selves make actually affect their pasts in stable time loops, which begs the question of: can they even deviate from that thing so called fate at all.”

“You sound pretty interested in things related to time travel.” Flowey pointed out.

“Not particularly? I mean, sure, the science part of the thing sounds interesting because of all the intricacies and such, but it’s far too much stuff to deal with. It is also a lame plot point if not used correctly.”

“That means you’ve never wanted to have the power to go back in time?” MK asked. “I did. Yo, I would use it to ace all the tests!”

“HMM. I DON’T THINK I WOULD USE IT FOR TESTS IF I HAD THAT POWER. BUT MY PLATE OF SPAGHETTI ONCE FELL TO THE FLOOR BEFORE I COULD EVEN EAT IT. I SUPPOSE I COULD USE IT THEN.”

“What about you, Miranda?” Frisk asked.

“…” 

“is something wrong?” Sans asked after your silence.

“Nah! I’m fine.” You replied. “I suppose it would depend on how those powers worked. Would I remember all that had happened? Would I have to relive all of my past experiences? Would I watch from afar as past me lived through them?”

“Does it matter?” Flowey asked, a bit annoyed at you avoiding to answer.

“There’s only one thing I would love more than anything to be able to change, but what if, no matter what I did, it wouldn’t matter because things would end up the same way? I’m not sure. I would try it, but reliving it again without being able to change it... it would break me apart.”

That seemed to resonate with MK. You weren’t surprised that it did. Somehow you think it affected Sans too. You were never completely sure with him. Then again if he had really bad dreams, as the ones you'd noticed he had, he could more than likely understand what you meant too, just like MK. You decided to lighten up the mood.

“On the other hand, I could eat chocolates over and over without having to worry about gaining weight. I would just rewind time and eat the chocolate again, only to rewind again.”

“Yo! That is an awesome idea!”

The bantering went on for some more time before you returned to the reading. That was the best night of sleep you had so far. If only the following day would have been as easygoing as that one…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see you next week. I was trying to come up with a pun for the next chapter but couldn't thing of any without re _cycle_ ing the ones I've already used ;P
> 
> here come the links ans explanations!!!
> 
> so, for the homestuck video in specific that they were watching with dog Jade and human Jade the link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZEmjH1i03I&t=890s  
> if you really want to see the scene I was talking about start the video at minute 8:14 and to skip the short recap that cuts half way through the scene go to minute 12:47. As for whats happening, in short each on the characters have a dream self which acts as sort of a second life. Jade's died and through several time shenanigans her grandpa took hold of the dream self's bodyand brought it back to the past where he embalmed it and stuffed it and has been sitting there for ten years (which means that technically, regardless of time shenanigans, in the land of the dead her dream self was there for ten years too even if chronologically she hasn't been dead long). The ghostly dig in a prior kernel sprite. kernel sprites are things that are supposed to act as your guide and you need to prototype them twice to get them to be able to talk. This includes tossing dead bodies there so that they get to be alive again. Jade's already has her teleporting dog in it (Bec -short for Beckerel- was still alive by then and voluntarily jumped into the kernel to protect her which cause some problems) and she is tossing her dead dream self there to revive her again to help defeat a very genocidal beast (who uses a ring to get the power of all prototypes). Her dream self died trying to save John's (another character -the main one at that-) from dying so she thinks he is dead. Karkat is a troll from another set of players (the whole dream self thing among others is all part of a game construct) whose session was attacked by the same being that is attacking Jade's and let's just say that he blamed her for it because that being got god like powers due to her dog but recently realized that that wasn't quite the case so he is trying to apologize for bullying her for so long.
> 
> as for [S] Wake the link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WyKbbP8ft0  
> As for what exactly is going on here. the dog being with teleporting ability and killing everyone was named Jack Noir and got god like powers from the ring he is wearing (that has the power of several prototypings of kernel sprites) that made him transform (In this form he is usually called Bec Noir for reasons that have to do with some of what i explained in the paragraph above) And he is killing off avery single one of the trolls. The ones he is killing right now are the dream selves of some of them (usually act like second lives but since most of the trolls didn't need them aside from Vriska, they are still there). The aries chick in the center of the moon in the stone had her real self dead and turned to a ghost who now inhabit a robot because there was no one who knew how to activate her dreamself and by the time they did her body was long gone. The fact that her dear self is in that slab of stone means that is someone were to kill her while she was there she could reach god tier (this is one of two ways to reach god tier, the other being Vriska's -more on that later-) Because the whole moon is on fire, her dream self effectively dies on the stone slab, which causes her robot self to explode. Aradia (aries' name) had time powers in her god tier hence why she can stop time to keep Bec Noir from killing her.  
> skip to one hour later Vriska is in her godtier outfit about to face of with Tavrus. She has an extreme hate obsession for the guy and she wasn't always a good girl but he decided to stop her plans regarding helping the humans defeat Bec Noir (or what she considers be the best plans to defeat Bec Noir) and she actively believes that she has to kill him (btw, the whole reason he has metal legs in the first place is because she paralyzed from the waist by making him jump off a cliff with her mind powers) she later comes to realize that most of the things she did was mainly based on what she thought was right due to troll culture (which is a very violent culture) and tries to make up for all that she did wrong but as it is she truly, whole heartedly **believes** that she _has_ to kill Tavrus and he isn't really to her level when it comes to power so he fails to defeat her and dies in the process. (as for her plans, she never gets to put them to practice, btw)


	29. Chapter 28: TMW You Just Want to Die of Embarrassment #relatable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda has a _bloody_ messy time and isn't happy about it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have fun with the hilarity ;) see end notes for chapter bonus of Sans' POV.
> 
>  
> 
> additional comments that would usually be at the end of the chapter but because of bonus is here:  
> -toilet paper is shocking to fish monsters  
> -Sex Ed: PMS!Miranda Edition  
> -Sex Ed: Toriel Edition  
> -Monster History lesson  
> -Soulmates are real but not 'fated'  
> -Heats!  
> -In no way will this conversation be relevant eventually ;P  
> -Not at all  
> -Toriel might be finally forgiving Asgore  
> -Misunderstandings: Miranda Edition  
> -Blue puns  
> -Chapter bonus

There’s nothing like waking up to immeasurable pain in the morning to get one’s blood pumping. Truly a wonderful way to start the day. You couldn’t imagine a better way to wake up than to feel like your literal insides were twisting and rotting away like mad within your lower belly.

You groaned deeply as you woke up to excruciating pain. You look around to see everyone still asleep. Well… everyone but the kids. MK seemed to have left the bedroom but both Frisk and Flowey were still there and looked at you as you groaned again, following that with a whimper.

“What’s wrong with you. Can’t you see we are trying to talk without waking everyone up!” Flowey complained.

“It huuuurts!” You whimpered and Frisk tapped your shoulder to get you to look at him.

“What hurts? Should we wake up mom?”

You were just about to agree when a sudden thought, and a sense of wetness from between your thighs, made you reevaluate everything. You counted the days backwards. Once you reached September and came up short you blanched. You’d skipped a month. And now it was back with a vengeance. That was why it was being so painful. Still, you needed to make sure the wetness was what you thought it was. 

You sat up and tried to peek inside the sleeping bag without letting the kids see. There wasn’t enough light to see clearly. You glanced quickly at the kids, who watched you with a weirded-out frown, ensuring that they couldn’t see from that angle, before you pulled the fabric back a bit more, finally seeing the enormous red wet stain. Just great!

“It that blood!?” Flowey asked suddenly.

You looked back only to see he was still too far away to see inside the bag. At seeing your expression of being caught _red handed_ -goddammit, Sans!- Flowey added.

“I can smell it, idiot.”

“O-oh!”

“You’re bleeding!?” Frisk asked. They immediately began shaking Papyrus awake before you could stop them.

“LORD NOODLES! YOU SHALL NOT ESCAPE FOREV- HUH?” He yelled as he woke up from a dream. He squinted his still sleepy sockets at Frisk’s hand gestures. “WHAT!? THE SKINNY HUMAN IS BLEEDING?!!!!”

Of course his tone of voice had to wake Sans up, just to see you and Papyrus wrestle with your sleeping back, you to keep yourself covered, him demanding to see your injury.

“what’s going on?” He asked, feeling very much confused.

“THE FRISK HAS INFORMED ME THAT MIRANDA IS BLEEDING!” Papyrus said. “BUT. SHE. WON’T. LET. ME. SEE!”

With the last word, he pulled the sleeping bag upwards so hard you literally fell down from it, revealing your blood soaked backside.

Papyrus took one glance at it… and proceeded to faint. Sans immediately began to freak out at the large stain.

“how did that happen! are you ok? what? how?”

“HEY PUNKS, SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!” Undyne burst into the bedroom with very disheveled hair only for her eyes to land on your still very visible red stain, since you hadn’t been able to untangle enough from the sleeping bag to stand up and hide it. “Oh god!”

Finally untangled you managed to stand up.

“Look guys, I’m ok!”

“OK!? YOU'RE FREAKING BLEEDING, PUNK!!!”

“It’s natural-“

“YOU TAKE YOUR PANTS OFF RIGHT NOW! I NEED TO HEAL YOU UP!” She proceeded to try and pull your pants down as Sans freaked out even more, unsure whether to watch in case help was needed or turn around to give you privacy.

“Undyne!!”

You managed to escape the fish monster’s grasp and stalked out of Papyrus’ room and into the bathroom feeling completely and utterly humiliated as Rajani, who had just woken up, was dying of laughter. Well, good thing she could feel your pain too. 

Last thing you needed while you were in this much pain was being jostled around by a bunch of overly concerned monsters. Both you and Rajani cringed at the new onslaught of pain.

And then Undyne burst through the bathroom door.

“Take those off right now!” She yelled, proceeding to grab your pajama bottoms and yanking them down.

“Undyne!!!”

“I need to see what I’m doing if I want to heal you properly!” She then forced you to lay down to check you between the legs.

“Let go, you brute! I said I’m fine!” You smacked her up the head and pushed her away with your feet.

“If you’re fine then WHY ARE YOU BLEEDING!!!???” She protested, going for another lunge.

“Because it’s part of my fucking reproductive system, goddammit!!!!” You tossed the closest bathroom appliance, a toilet paper roll, at her face.

Your words, combined with the shock of getting toilet paper tossed at her face, made the tall fish woman pause.

“What?!”

“Just goddamn lemme go. It hurts. Go the fuck away and, if you want to be goddamn useful, bring me some clothes and the plastic package that has Evax written on it!” You snapped, feeling pretty on edge due to all of the pain. Your face must have looked pretty damn scary if it made her take a step back. “Now, Undyne!”

She let you go and you ‘glared’ her out of the bathroom.

“Don’t forget the Evax package!” You yelled out at her before slumping to the tiles grabbing the flabby flesh covering the offending aching organ. God damn your fuckass of a uterus!

_**We seriously need you to take some pain medication pronto! Rajani said urgently.** _

It really did hurt.

You retrieved a few pills from one of the cabinets and quickly took the strongest one before laying on the cool tiles on fetal position. Goddamn did it hurt!

A shy knock sounded at the door.

“Who is it!”

“I-i-i-it’s me, A-A-Alphys.” 

“Do you have my clothes?”

“Y-yes!”

“And the Evax pads?”

“I-I-I think so… ?”

“Come in.”

She did and worry filled her facial expression as she saw you on the floor.

“O-oh my! A-Are you ok?”

“Just waiting for the pills to work. Until then I’m having to deal with my suicidal uterus trying to take me down with it.”

“What?”

“I’ll explain later. I see that you aren’t the only one in need of some anatomy lessons on the human body.”

“O-oh, o-ok!”

She sat beside you with your clothes still in hand.

“I-is it a natural process then?”

“As very unfortunately natural as they come.”

“O-ok.” That seemed to calm her down. “Everyone is p-p-pretty worried, though…”

“I guess they would be…” You gradually felt the pain disappear and sat up, dressed only on your pajama’s top and bloodied panties. You should have felt embarrassed at the whole ordeal but, due to your hormonal spike, you were feeling angry instead at your perceived humiliation. “I’ll be right down to explain shit to them in a minute. I need to compose myself first.”

“Ok, I’ll be d-d-down in the k-kitchen with the others.” She left and you finally stood up and took your clothes off. 

You cleaned yourself as best as you could and dressed in a new attire plus pad. You noticed that either Undyne or Alphys had grabbed the wrong kind of pads, bringing you a night pad instead of regular ones. You didn’t mind, though. Considering how late your cycle was, more than likely you would be like the Niagara Falls down there for the first couple of days.

With a grunt at the pain that had yet to fully fade, you made your way to your room and searched around it for your medicine books.

A great-aunt had given you a set of twelve medicine books when you showed interest in it when you were younger. Sure, giving them to a normal eight-year-old would have been a waste, but you never were the normal sort of eight-year-old. The books included one about the cardiovascular system, one about first aid kits and what to do in case of an accident, one about bones and even one about hereditary diseases. The one you searched for was about the reproductive system and pregnancy. You found it and brought it along with some pencils and paper for a more detailed analysis and explanation.

You made your way down the stairs and to the kitchen where everyone was sitting looking worried sick, even the human kid! Hadn’t they taught them nothing in school? How could they not know about how the reproductive system worked? They were eleven, for Pete’s sake!

“Look, I understand you’re all worried, but my hormones are acting mental so I would like for you to be goddamn patient as I try to explain.” You said before anyone could question you. “I’m assuming you don’t know much about the reproductive system, am I right, Frisk?”

“I didn’t know about bleeding.”

“Ok, I’ll explain everything just in case. But in return I’m curious about how you monsters work as well, ok?” Before they could answer you put your book down and opened the page that showed the outside differences of both genders. “As you know, humans are biologically split into male and female. This doesn’t account for other gender identities, it is merely how the body actually works. Sometimes abnormal genders can occur due to some DNA mishap but basically most of humankind works this way. On this side, you have the male genitals and on this side you have the female ones. It basically works pretty much like insert disk A into slot B and all that. You with me so far?”

“Miranda, are you sure it’s appropriate to show such images to young children!?” Toriel asked flabbergasted.

“They’ll have to learn about it somehow. Better it be in a scientific lesson sort of context than from peers wanting to bone them.” That made Sans snort a bit, even if there wasn’t any pun there. Had you just given him more pun ideas? “Let’s just say that with the peers, they are less likely to get accurate information that could prevent unwanted pregnancies and transmittable diseases.”

“Oh, would other children really do that? It’s hard to believe.” Toriel commented.

“Teens would. Older more experienced teens seeking to take advantage of ones far more innocent. But that’s beside the point!” You flip the page to one dedicated entirely to the male organs and how they worked. “I’ll start by how men work down under since their whole shtick if simpler than the women’s one. This is what you see outside as the penis, whose use seems, to me, pretty obvious, and here is the scrotum, the skin that covers the testicles and makes sure they are kept at the best temperature possible. The testicles are where the reproductive cells are made. Those cells, depicted in this corner, are called spermatozoa and together make up what we call the sperm, or other far cruder names in specific situations. There is more to the whole thing but all you need to know is that when the stimulus is sufficient, this sperm is projected along these tubes and comes off via the Urethra. Everything clear so far?”

“Your species’ inner workings seem far more complex than ours in a way, my child. I’m assuming all these other labeled things may also hold some special significance?” Toriel asked, curiosity shining in her eyes. 

Well, it was no surprise, really. She did want to be a teacher. Knowing things was her dream job.

“Yes, they do. For example, this gland over here, the prostate, produces a fluid that helps nourish the sperm cells. Those are just minor details that I can explain later on after everyone understands the basics of human reproductive anatomy. Since this isn’t why I’m bleeding I’ll be moving on from the topic for now.” You flipped to another page, this one with the basic female reproductive organs. “This is how females look inside. I don’t think I need to explain what a vagina is for, do I? Anyway, this is the cervix. It’s the bottom part of the uterus and the only time it opens up is for a baby to slide out of it. I suppose it basically keeps the baby inside if there is a pregnancy and prevents unwanted things to go in deeper. Only sperm can go through. And this little asshole here is the uterus and the reason why I’m in massive pain right now. I’ll explain more on that later. These two oval shaped things over here are the ovaries and they produce the eggs, as well as hormones. The eggs are the female reproductive cell and, unlike men, we only have a set number of them. Following me so far?”

“So… If I got that right, this here is what’s causing you pain? Then why keep it?” Undyne asked.

“It’s also where the baby is kept. It’s the one organ that can expand up to seven times its size for the sake of accommodating a baby.”

“So… basically if you ever want to have a baby you need to have that and deal with the pain for the mean while… am I right?” Since her scientific side was showing, Alphys wasn’t stuttering.

“Indeed.”

“BUT WHY ARE YOU BLEEDING!!!???” Papyrus exclaimed, seemingly frustrated at still not knowing for sure if he should worry or not.

“I was just getting to that.” You turn the page to one depicting the menstrual cycle. “You see, we women aren’t constantly producing more eggs. We have a set number of them. Around three hundred or so. That being said we can’t constantly be tossing them out like men do. What we do have is a cycle in which one, at the most two, eggs get released. Usually that cycle lasts 28 days, but it varies from person to person. Mine is pretty irregular and I just had one close to doubling that amount, which is why it’s hurting so damn much.”

“are you sure you really don’t need to be healed?” Sans asked when you flinched at a temporary spurt of pain.

“Pretty sure that you aren’t supposed to do that.” You point to a picture in the cycle. “What happens is that, as the cycle proceeds, these walls get thicker and thicker in expectation of carrying a new life and providing it with nutrition.” You pointed to another image in particular. “As the end of the cycle approaches, the egg is released and follows this tube until reaching the Uterus. This is the point that a woman is most fertile. If the egg gets fertilized by the sperm, it attaches to one of these walls and begins to form a baby in a pregnancy that’ll last around nine months. But if the egg isn’t fertilized…” You point to the image of the inner walls of the uterus falling and peeling off. “All the tissue that was gathered for the new life becomes useless and is discarded, along with the egg. Because it’s flesh filled with blood take a guess just how it translated to this morning!” You finish in a fake cheerful voice.

“So, you are basically bleeding on the inside!? HOW CAN THAT BE NORMAL!!!???” Undyne exclaimed.

“It just is. Wish it wasn’t, though.”

“This is so…” Undyne continued, her expression twisting a bit.

“Gross? I know-”

“METAL!!!”

Now that one surprised you.

“What!?”

“You are literally bleeding from inside out with an inner wound and yet there you are, standing like you are mostly alright!” Undyne explained. “If that isn’t badass I don’t know what is!” And then she decked you in the arm. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner.”

“I tried. You were all too busy freaking out and trying to pull my pants off to listen!

“Oh! Oops!”

“Yeah, ‘oops’.” You said tersely. “One thing’s for sure. That is _not_ the way to get into my pants.”

“As if! The only pants I’ll ever want to get into are Alphys’!”

“U-Undyne!!” Alphys blurted out, blushing deeply.

“By the way, my child.” Toriel purposefully interrupted before more sex related subjects could be broached. “You said this time was more painful than usual and that was probably because you were late. Does this mean it’s usually not so painful? Could there be anything wrong in there?”

“Doubtful. It’s not the first time it happens. It has happened twice before. And my cycle was always very irregular so I’m not surprised. There are also instances of female athletes that stop menstruating due to the physical strain they put on their bodies and that can be remedied with cutting back on some things and indulging on others.” You closed your book and immediately looked at Alphys. “With everything human reproduction over and done with, it’s only fair if you tell me how monster reproduction works! Especially after these humiliating events that included not letting me explain what was happening, grabbing me too tight or tossing me around while I was in pain, and freaking trying to undress me in front of people of the male persuasion!"

Was it too obvious you were still quite irked at all the madness? Well, though luck! And for once Rajani agreed with you… maybe only because you were acting the same way Rajani usually did. Goddamn! You were going to feel guilty over it once the hormones settled the fuck down, weren’t you? Great. Just great.

“I’m sure that would be a lovely conversation but, if you’ve finished your breakfast, you should be getting ready for school.” Toriel said to the kids.

“I-I-I-I should be going t-t-to work soon t-too.” Alphys added, a bit flustered.

“That may be true, but you would just be delaying the inevitable by not explaining it now.” You pointed out.

“I k-know b-but…”

“Look. Because of all the hormones I have jumping up and down all over my organism I’m a bit short temperate today. Just warning you. Please don’t keep me waiting too long. I’m far too curious for my own good.”

“O-Ok…”

“Perhaps I could explain it later, after the children leave?” Toriel intervened. “Considering I hope to become a teacher perhaps that is a subject I should broach with you. I could consider it an experiment in teaching.”

“Yey!” You whooped only to flinch just after. “Darts! My womb is still trying to commit suicide!”

“it is?!” Sans asked, unsure if you were joking or not. For all he knew it really was trying to kill itself.

“In a way, it is. These painful cramps are caused when the uterus contracts in an attempt to stop the bleeding, which in turn can cut the flow of blood into the uterus itself, instead of just the bleeding portion, which causes the painful experience I’m having.” You explained. “You won’t mind if I wait in the living room, would you, Toriel?

“Of course not. Please, make yourself at home. I’ll be there in a moment.”

You shuffled your way into the living room, grabbed a pillow, hugged it to your belly and curled into a ball. It was far less painful now but it still bothered you some. Sans joined you not long after, still looking at you worriedly.

“What?”

“nothing.”

“Sure…”

“SANS, THE BATHROOM IS FREE.” Papyrus resounded from upstairs.

Sans sighed and teleported away. Not long after, Papyrus joined you in the living room, same worried expression in his eye sockets as his brother.

“ARE YOU FEELING BETTER, SKINNY HUMAN?”

He’s back to calling you Skinny Human. It seemes he has calmed down some.

“I am. Still aching a bit but much better than this morning.” You replied calmly. There’s no way you could remain your period induced prickly self towards the sweet sugar plum skely.

“WONDERFUL!!! WORRY NOT, SKINNY HUMAN. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL MAKE SURE YOUR LEVEL OF UNCONFORTABLENESS WON’T RISE ABOVE THE ONE YOU CURRENTLY HAVE. IN FACT, I’LL BE SURE TO HELP YOU LOWER IT EVEN MORE BY DISTRACTING YOU WITH SOME SEASONAL HOLIDAY SHOPPING!”

“Seasonal holiday shopping? Shopping for what?” You ask, feeling confused. Christmas was a long way away from now.

“I’M GLAD YOU ASK! FOR HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, OF COURSE!”

“Oh. I’m not sure about that…” No wonder you didn’t know. Halloween wasn’t a customary holiday in Portugal.

“NO NEED TO WORRY, I’M SURE THAT YOU WILL LOOK STUNNING IN ANY COSTUME YOU PICK. NOT TO MENTION YOU HAVE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, TO HELP IN YOUR ENDEAVOR.”

It wasn’t really your endeavor if he was the one deciding that you should do it. It was much more like his endeavor. Still, you can’t just deny the tall skeleton his wishes. Not when he was so concerned with distracting you from the pain.

“Ok, we’ll go after lunch, is that fine?”

“OF COURSE! WE’LL NEED TO BE PROPERLY ENERGIZED IF WE ARE TO SPEND THE WHOLE AFTERNOON IN OUR QUEST FOR THE PERFECT DISGUISE!”

You hear the front door shut, indicating that the kids had left for school since both Alphys and Undyne are getting dressed. Asgore had, fortunately, left before everyone started freaking out over your biology.

You wait patiently for the queen to reemerge into the living room. Eventually she does, as if to check if you were still there, interested in learning more. Your eager expression seemed to be enough of an answer.

“You are looking quite enthusiastic about this, my child.” She commented with a giggle.

“Why wouldn’t I be? This is like sex ed but way cooler.”

“I would think the subject would be considered _heated_ rather than a cooled one.” Toriel commented and Papyrus groaned. You opted to giggle at that.

“is someone telling puns without me?” Sans reappeared right behind you, scaring the crap out of you.

“Indeed, friend, I was.” Toriel replied with a tender smile.

“that won’t do.” He flopped on another chair, clearly getting ready to pun right back.

“Before we get too distracted here, let’s leave the punnery for after the talk? I might even try to join in if we do! Right now I just was to learn some stuff.”

“promise?” Sans asked, looking very eager.

“What?”

“that you’ll join us?”

“Yes, ok, I promise.”

At least that seemed to satisfy the small skeleton. Toriel was quite amused as well.

“I’ll look forwards to your jokes and puns, my child.”

“Ok.” Really, what else could you say to that. You just wanted to learn some stuff and they kept getting distracted, while now you were just frustrated.

“Well, first thing I can say is the we have nowhere near as many bits and pieces to our method of reproduction as humans. That being said we actually can reproduce in two distinct ways.”

“Really!?”

“Indeed. In the beginning our one way of reproducing was pretty similar to yours. Insert peg into hole, like you said. In fact, we seemed to have some problems that were similar, though not in such a hate and intolerance filled way as you humans have, with interracial and same sex couples. Some of the monsters back then were very much traditional in a way and wanted grandchildren from all of their sons and daughters. It was more of a mild distaste at their children’s sexuality than the ways I’ve seen humans deal with it. Sure, some relationships would become somewhat tense but boundaries were never crossed.”

“I understand that concern with same sex couples but… interracial?” You asked.

“Like you’ve seen, all of us have different body shapes. And for as much as magic is our main component, we still have a semblance of DNA in us. That would mean that monsters of different types would not be able to reproduce naturally. Some of slightly different types, like wolf monsters and dog monsters could still birth hybrids but radically different monsters like a wolf monster and an octopus monster could not.”

“Ok, that makes sense.”

“As for the other kind of reproduction, I would need to also talk about the war, if you don’t mind.”

“Uh… sure. But what did the war have to do with sex?” You ask.

“WELL, NOT REALLY SO MUCH AS SEX AS IT HAD TO DO WITH SOULS, IF I’M REMEMBERING MY HISTORY CLASS CORRECTLY.” Papyrus intervened.

“Oh. From what I heard, the war started because monsters could take human souls and we got scared like bumbling toddlers, right?”

“mostly right. we’d just found about souls and, naturally, the monsters back then investigated exactly what that meant. one of those monsters had a human mate. but the human got sick and, despite her best effort, the monster couldn’t save him. not wanting to be alone without him and noticing that his soul hadn’t shattered she took it and absorbed it, or so i’ve heard.” Sans told you. “of course the other humans were freaked out about that and decided to attack us before we put that newly gained knowledge to use, not that we would have.”

“Oh!”

“We lost many people in that war. When we were locked underground, monsterkind was pretty scarce. It became urgent, more than ever before, to repopulate and regain our numbers. That was the worse we got about the sort of couples I mentioned before. And then our scientist at the time… I can’t seem to recall his name, for some reason… But as I was saying, he found out that souls could create new life together regardless of their parent’s types.”

“That’s incredible!”

“It was. A lot of new types, mixes between two previously different types, began popping up. It has gotten to the point that it’s become rare for monsters to find compatible matches according to their DNA and for natural pregnancy to occur. This sort of reproduction comes with a cost, though…”

“How so?”

“undyne told me she pointed you out jerry in the trial, do you remember him?”

“Yes?”

“well... let’s just say that some dna is clearly not meant to be mixed with catastrophic and quite visible results.”

“Oh! …because of his appearance?”

“not just that. personality is also a bit affected by dna somewhat, not just phenotypes.”

“Oh.”

“AT LEAST THERE IS ONLY ONE OF HIM. EVEN THE GREAT PAPYRUS FINDS HIS PRESENCE… UNSETTLING.”

“So... you still have the potential to reproduce naturally, just not with a lot of potential partners but… you have no periods?”

“No, we don’t. We have something very different, my child, and it’s common to all genders.”

“What is it?”

“We have heats.”

“Oh! …How do they work?”

You question seemed to fluster both skeletons, who quickly made excuses to leave the scene. Toriel had also blushed a bit but seemed to be as determined to power through her lesson just the same as you had.

“We don’t have the same cycle all around, some of us have a heat once a decade, some have it four times a year. It is a very vulnerable time and the main reason we haven’t divulged this information so far is for fear that humans could take advantage of us in such situations if they knew.” That came with a clear warning in her tone of voice.

“How so?” 

“A monster in heat can’t exactly say no. They crave physical touch too much to resist unwanted advances for long. It’s one of the things that Asgore made sure to punish severely should anyone ever attempt to do such. Asking is still fine, but insisting despite being denied is not.”

“Isn’t keeping it a secret worse? ‘Cause then the humans also don’t know not to insist with monsters in heat… Wait, don’t answer that. Most would still insist, wouldn’t they?”

“Yes. They would. As it is, monsters can just stay home for a couple of days to deal with it by pretending to have a monster sickness and go back to work like nothing happened.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” You agreed. “Do heats really take that little time to pass?”

“It depends on the amount of magic the monster has. Weaker monsters can take only one day to wait it out, and stronger ones, usually called boss monsters, can take a whole week. Most of them just take around three days. But don’t under estimate this amount of time. It seems little until you’re in the throes of it trying desperately to appease your own urges over and over again.”

“Appeasing your… oh.” You blushed at the realization of what she meant.

_**That is a lot of masturbation.**_ Rajani commented. _**We can’t even have doubles and these guys will be so desperate they literally won’t stop until it’s over.**_

_TMI, Raj, TMI._

“That sounds… hard.” You pause in realization. “NO PUN INTENDED!”

Toriel giggles a bit like a virginal school girl talking about sex with her God fearing but curious friends.

“The only way to speed up the process is, as you guessed, physical contact. More specifically physical contact with a partner. It seems our bodies are able to sense if the task is being taken… solo. And, since the reason heat exists is solely focused on procreation, it seems that some part of us that is completely beyond our control knows if the excess magic is being spent in potential pregnancy or not. It probably senses if there is another soul nearby or not, according to that scientist I mentioned.”

“Oh, ok.”

“Monsters could still get pregnant and birth children even without conceiving during heats but it was much more likely for everything to go well and for the child to have much more powerful magic if during heats. Strangely enough, soul pregnancy seems to also work out better if conceived during heats, probably due to the excess magic. We believe that that’s how Boss Monster ended up existing.”

“Makes sense, strong monster conceived during a heat does the deed during a heat with another monster conceived during a heat and even stronger monster appears, right?”

“Yes.”

“But… if all monsters have a different cycle… does that mean that the cycles in a couple may not coincide?” You ask.

“Well, it depends. Most couples that are of two different types don’t initially match their cycle but once they bond and live together they slowly begin to change their pattern. For example, imagine a monster that goes into heat once a year and one that goes into heat once a decade. Slowly the monster that has it once a year begins to have longer cycles and the other shorter ones until they are both at a five year cycle together. And Undyne and Alphys told me something interesting the other day.”

“Erm… how so? Not something too… intimate, is it?”

_**Hey, if it is I still want to hear it, you nincanpoop!** _

_Go imagine some porn or something and leave the dinofish duo alone._

“Oh! Not in that way!” Toriel laughed merrily. “You have a surprisingly naughty mind.”

“…” You blush in shame.

“But as I was saying, Alphys noticed her cycles were changing even while not having a bondmate and has recently discovered that they are now matching Undyne’s, who’s cycles also had begun changing. She believes that they began shifting just after they met and that it might be because they are true soulmates.”

“Wait… soulmates are real!? I thought it was just a writing construct!”

“No, they are very much real, as we found out. It seems that the souls on true soulmates resonate in complementary ways to one another and yet are in tune at the same time. We still don’t know much about such phenomenon. …Asgore and I were pretty close to true soulmates in that sense. I guess that, because we were a bit out of tune we couldn’t balance out each other’s flaws when shove came to push. True soulmates are hard to find, you see? But they are not necessary to life a full life. You can still be happy without a true soulmate.”

“This is mightily interesting! I thought that soulmates weren’t real, just something you could only ever dream about but never actually have.”

“My, aren’t you romantic today!” Toriel commented teasingly. “Have someone in mind?”

So, no one told Toriel about your past… You didn’t blame them. It wasn’t a topic easy to breach.

“I doubt I even have someone like that. I don’t even have the time of day to even consider romance, let alone anyone in specific. Nah. My cats and dogs are the only lifetime companions I’ll ever need.”

“Surely you don’t really think so!”

“Not everyone is made for love, Toriel. Some are too harsh with their trust on someone else, others are too frail to handle love gone wrong. And I’m both at the same time.” You said, not a hind of sadness in your voice. It was just a fact of life that you had long come to terms with.

“I assume you mean Rajani being one of those sides.” Toriel continued.

“Yes.”

“I just think… And please don’t get angry at me for not dropping the subject quite yet. But I think that, no matter how much you plan around a problem, it has a way to still get to you regardless, so… don’t count too much on that.”

“Are you speaking from experience, Toriel?”

“…perhaps…”

“Are you reconsidering Asgore, by any chance.”

“No! Well… not yet, anyway.”

“But eventually, am I right?”

“You are making me quite flustered, my child. Usually I only talk about such things with Sans.” Toriel commented, her cheeks very red. 

Not for the first time you wondered about her relationship with Sans. They always seemed thick as thieves and you had somehow assumed they had a thing together, considering how even Asgore seemed to regard them with jealousy from time to time. He was pretty easy to read. You hadn’t wanted to question them about their relationship, though. They were entitled to privacy and it was none of your business. 

But Toriel’s latest statement meant this wasn’t the case. Perhaps you’d been looking in too deep into the issue? Perhaps they were just really, really good and completely platonic friends.   
You noticed Sans standing by the entrance with an odd melancholic expression on his face. How long had he been there?

“Hey! It’s safe to come in. I’m not going to assault you with any more soul sex interrogations.” You said and his face turned a deep cyan at being caught eaverdropping, making you smile.

“Oh, there you are, Sans! Come on in! If I’m not mistaken, Miranda here owes us a punny conversation.”

His blush calming a bit, he finally stepped forward, smile wide and clearly ready to be the one starting the puns. You wouldn’t let him, though. You took the chance as swift as a coursing river.

“Hey, no need to look so _blue_ , Sans. You are definitely welcome among our midst.”

That made him blush hard once again.

“Oh! I _cyan_ what you did there!” Toriel shot out with a mischievous smile, flustering the skeleton even further.

“A pun and a meme? Toriel, I’m gonna need some _cerulean_ efforts to even come close to that one”

“I didn’t understand that one, my child.” She informed you.

“As in Herculean efforts. From the name Hercules, a demi-god that was very, very strong. In short.” And because you couldn’t let Sans recover from his flustered state… “I _azure_ you I’ll tell you all about him after our punnery.”

“Oh! I can’t wait _teal_ then!”

You both laughed as Sans hid his face in his hood. You changed from puns about the color blue to others that were unrelated to Sans just to let him recover from his plight. As soon as he recovered enough he tried to lead your pun war to new grounds, in an attempt of finding something to fluster you right back. 

It’s useless to say that he couldn’t find anything. The best he could hope for was for references to past moments that had caused you embarrassment but he didn’t have the knowledge necessary for that yet. 

Eventually your conversation changed to fart jokes and stories about accidental farts someone had done. Your family stories were particularly rich in that aspect. From your sister accidentally scolding you via the wrong orifice to a grandpa that could imitate a rattling gun like no one’s business.

You were glad you managed to get his mind of whatever had saddened him. Grimly, you wondered if his relationship with Toriel was one sided after all.

Papyrus wisely avoided the living room for the whole morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **BONUS:**   
>  _(for those who were curious about what Sans was actually thinking)_
> 
> “My, aren’t you romantic today! Have someone in mind?”
> 
> Sans stopped as he heard Toriel’s question to Miranda. Curious, and not wanting to be caught eavesdropping, he hanged back near the living room entrance.
> 
> “I doubt I even have someone like that. I don’t even have the time of day to even consider romance, let alone anyone in specific. Nah. My cats and dogs are the only lifetime companions I’ll ever need.”
> 
> That was… so sad. She spoke as if it didn’t even bother her but… how could she feel fine with that? He took a step out of hiding to see her face. It was blank in expression.
> 
> “Surely you don’t really thing so!” Toriel voiced his thoughts.
> 
> “Not everyone is made for love, Toriel. Some are too harsh with their trust on someone else, others are too frail to handle love gone wrong. And I’m both at the same time.” She confirmed, still not a hint of sadness in her voice. 
> 
> Sans began pondering on this issue. Even he, after all the shit he’d gone through, was beginning to hope for the future. Perhaps his hopes weren’t quite the romantic sort. Heck he barely even knew what he wanted to do about his career once he got Paps’ life settled. Should he or shouldn’t he go back into the science field? But at least he was looking forward to it. Frisk had made a save point just before they left the underground and promised not to reset, but yes load to that point if something bad happened. Thankfully it hadn’t been needed but just the promise that it was there was enough to give him hope.
> 
> The point was, even removing romance from the equation, Sans had a pretty good hope for the future. Could have been better, that’s for sure. He still only had 1HP, after all. But at least he had some hope. But, now that he thought of it, Miranda always seemed disinterested on planning for her future. Even after telling him she didn’t plan on remaining at the compound forever she didn’t plan on what to do when she decided to leave. It was as if she merely existed. And for some reason that caused some uneasy feelings on his soul. He couldn’t help but wonder if whatever had caused your attack at Grillby’s had to do with her lack of any motivation for the future.
> 
> “Hey! It’s safe to come in. I’m not going to assault you with any more soul sex interrogations.” 
> 
> Miranda’s voice snapped him out of his reverie and the comment made him blush at being caught eavesdropping. He wondered if it was too late to nope the hell out of there. 
> 
> “Oh, there you are, Sans! Come on in! If I’m not mistaken, Miranda here owes us a punny conversation.” Tori continued.
> 
> Well, Miranda did say that the interrogations were over… And he knew just the pun to kickstart this conversation.
> 
> “Hey, no need to look so _blue_ , Sans. You are definitely welcome among our midst.” Miranda said aloofly.
> 
> And then she smirked. Goddammit. Why that was adorable, he had no idea! But his blush was not what he wanted them to pun about!
> 
> “Oh! I _cyan_ what you did there!”
> 
> Not you too, Tori!
> 
> -end of bonus-


	30. Chapter 29: Of Curiosity and Masks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to see inside Papyrus' mind (Pap's POV)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this one is short but I just really wanted to make a Papyrus POV. I mean we had Mettaton's (right at the beginning ad it was short but it was still there), we had Undyne's, we had Alphys' and we had several of Sans (but considering he is the love interest this is obvious). It's weird that we don't have a POV of our FUTURE BROTHER IN LAW!!! XP  
> (as for the costumes see links in the end notes for some of them.

\--Papyrus POV—

 

The Great Papyrus was no fool. And the Great Papyrus wasn’t easily deceived. Ok, perhaps sometimes the Great Papyrus was somewhat naive about certain things. Like believing that everyone could be good if they tried. The Great Papyrus was well aware of the naivety of that ideal, but it was one he had chosen above all others and thus he would stick to it no matter what! If there was one thing he valued a lot, it was honor. Which surprised him that Integrity wasn’t his soul trait after all. But then again he did lie sometimes...

But he was getting side tracked.

The point was that, despite what others might think due to his cheerful and enthusiastic nature as well as unwavering faith in everyone around, the Great Papyrus knew much more than others gave him credit for. Like how his brother was only now finally hoping again but was overworking himself or how Toriel was speaking less harshly towards king Asgore. Or how Alphys and Undyne sometimes looked between him and Miranda oddly, probably up to no good.

So, overhearing Undyne talking to Alphys about the breakdown Miranda had the previous day at Grillby’s was no challenge for his mind to comprehend. But even without such obvious proof, the Great Papyrus would have easily realized something was wrong.

The day after the so-called breakdown he had seen Miranda acting oddly. Like how she flinched at sudden movements or loud sounds. It wasn’t as noticeable as one would expect but it was still there. The flinching as well as constantly trying to check her surroundings seemed to be things that she was obviously aware of, considering how much effort she put into disguising her actions. But there were other things that she most definitely wasn’t aware of.

She’d begun to impulsively scratch at her thighs while sitting, clasping her own forearms in front of her in a defensive pose, almost like hugging herself, and seemed very uncomfortable while having her back to the door, leading to her slowly adjusting her position to be able to face it. It was clear that she wasn’t aware of either of those actions because she made no efforts what so ever to correct them.  
Overhearing Undyne and Alphys had made it easier for him to understand somewhat where her behavior was coming from. Seeing someone so severely injured, especially a person who she was close to, was enough to make anyone a bit paranoid. But something was off. The ‘attack’ she had, the so-called flashback, and how her soul had reacted to it.

The Great Papyrus was well aware she had a painful past. And he didn’t mean just the suicide attempt either, though hearing how frail she had been back then, and how others showed her no mercy, had hit him hard on the sternum. No, despite all that, he was sure there was something more. She had, after all, mentioned knowing how to deal with psychological trauma to Alphys, at some point. 

Knowing that, he had spent most of that day trying to figure out a way to get her to relax again. It was only with Flowey’s help that he came up with the idea of a mini slumber party in his room. It would have been better if Undyne and Alphys had joined in on the fun but he thought that just them would do the trick.

His plan failed in many ways. One being that, when she got home from visiting Grillby, she seemed almost normal again and in no need of his help. He still proceeded with the slumber party though.

But the biggest fail so far had been the morning after. Waking up just to learn she was bleeding had concerned him a lot. If there was one thing that Papyrus had learned about humans it was that they needed their blood to survive and, unlike Alphys’ Japanese cartoons tried to make him believe, no one could actually survive the loss of great amounts of blood.

The Great Papyrus’ had been told that a bleeding human was like a dusting monster, with the difference that sometimes you could stop the bleeding in time to elongate the human’s life. Apparently he had taken that comparison too literally, as his brother later came to explain, because when he saw all that blood he had honestly believed that she was beginning to fall down and that his plan had somehow made her relapse and worsened her previous situation.

He’d never been as relieved as when he was told that was apparently normal for humans and patiently waited for Miranda to come back down to explain it to them all. Sure, the explanation was still terrifying. Human females bled from inner injuries EVERY SINGLE MONTH!? Wowie! No wonder human souls were several times more powerful! Not only capable of housing more than one consciousness but also sustain continuously bleeding internal injuries for a whole week? It was no wonder.

However, the fact that his outburst had led to everyone that was still in the house freaking out over her meant that his plan on relaxing Miranda had failed. On the positive side, at least the commotion had taken her minds away from her inner struggle with whatever she was concerned with in regards to her past.

Still, because of his failure, he only saw one way of redeeming himself. He would take her shopping! Frisk and Miranda’s human coworkers had explained to them all about Halloween. He’d wondered about that, especially when he had begun to see all those naked skeletons and obsession with pumpkins in every store in town. 

That was the magical moment that he learned via Frisk that humans were most definitely related to skeletons. They were just skeletons covered with fleshy armor and made mostly of matter. Why, Frisk and Miranda were already basically family, then!

Learning that Halloween was the perfect time to disguise one’s self seemed like a great opportunity for having fun. And now he thought that buying the costume would be a great way to have Miranda have some fun with him before the Halloween day itself. She seemed confused when he asked her, though. Does she not participate in the festivities? 

In the end, she did accept so all was fine.

He would have to wait for all the punnery to subside, however. Now way would he actually go in there, not even to rescue her. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Sans’ puns but he just made so many of them, and clearly with the purpose of teasing the Great Papyrus, that it had become his pet peeve. His permanent state of both like and distaste on his brother’s pun seemed very much irrational and he couldn’t quite explain why he felt this way. Was it just because Sans used his puns to get a reaction out of him that irked him? He also suspected it was due to the fact that Sans no longer used his puns merely for his own enjoyment but yes as a cover. If it was so… the Great Papyrus preferred not to think about it.

No matter how much he tried to ask Sans about it, he never confided in him. In fact, asking usually meant that Sans would stress himself even further by putting even more effort into pretending everything was ok. He had learned not to ask about several subjects.

To this day, Papyrus had never asked about their parents ever again. And, after some point, even talking about time-space stuff, which Sans used to love to talk about, had become a taboo. Which was why the Great Papyrus had been surprised when Sans actually listened to Miranda when she talked about discrepancies on time travel in video games or webcomics.

Perhaps Sans would go back into studying sciency things again.

Speaking of Miranda, he, the Great Papyrus, had grown very attached to her. To Rajani too. They were both two of the only people that were honest to him about several things, the others being Flowey and Frisk. 

Flowey could be pretty harsh and negative with his criticism and the Great Papyrus had a hard time figuring out which parts were true and which parts were just to try and get a rise out of him. Not that he’d ever given his flowery friend the sort of reaction he’d been hoping for. He felt it was his duty to teach Flowey that hurting others, be it verbally or not, would only hurt him in the future. Still, Papyrus appreciated, at the very least, that Flowey felt no need to hold back on his harsh critique.

Frisk was a different story. It was rare for them to actually criticize something as needing improvement. But when it did happen, Papyrus was completely sure of the critiques’ veracity. Still, Frisk mostly preferred to follow on his other friends’ footsteps and not tell him if he was doing something wrong.

That was what made talking to Miranda and Rajani so refreshing.

Neither of them went along with everyone else in trying to keep him unaware of his mistakes or pandering to what they assumed to be his desires. Miranda was more polite and afraid to offend and spoke as sensitively as possible, which the Great Papyrus appreciated greatly. As for Rajani, most of his interactions with her were short lived but, with the few times that Miranda let her slip in and give her opinion, the great Papyrus had observed her to be very acerbic in her wording but still very much honest, unlike Flowey’s criticism that was mostly trying to get a negative reaction out of him.

After a quick search over what sort of costumes he could get, that didn’t include walking about naked, he searched for costumes that Miranda could get. Regretfully it seemed that female costumes weren’t very good at isolating the human skin from the elements and he knew for sure that humans needed to keep warm in cold weather. Frisk had told him as much. Perhaps he could get Miranda to help him on that aspect? The costume was for her, after all.

What he hadn’t been counting on was for his plans to be so popular. That was indeed something he should have seen coming. After all, he is the Great Papyrus. Of course anything he would do would be trending in no time!

After lunch, he made his way to the shopping district with Miranda. Frisk, MK and Flowey tagged along wanting to get some costumes for themselves as well. Toriel had given him some money to spend on whatever attires they required. 

Miranda didn’t seem too keen on getting a costume for herself. He couldn’t blame her, though, -considering how revealing most of them were. MK was also having a hard time finding a costume for himself. 

He wanted an Indiana Jones costume but there weren’t any available in the shops. In the end, Miranda suggested going to a thrift store to get clothes that were similar to his usual outfit and getting a few props in the other shops. In the end, they managed to get all the items required for MK’s attire for an even cheaper price than what a regular costume was worth. It seemed that Miranda had a knack for cheap costumes.

Frisk also had a difficult time finding their costume. Apparently, they wanted a… E-V costume? Something from a series about monsters in pockets? But all they could find were some yellow long eared costumes that Miranda named as being peek-achoo. But Frisk was adamant on the E-V costume because they had the potential of becoming whatever they wished. That meant getting a native American costume because of the brown clothes, attaching a furred cream colored lapel to it, an extremely furry tail and a brown cap with eyes and ears stitched onto it that, apparently mimicked the so-called E-V. That costume ended up being more expensive than the average costume.

Next Miranda insisted on finding him, the Great Papyrus, a costume. To be sure, he wasn’t quite certain what he wanted to be disguised as. It wasn’t until she noted he had a 'pirate' flag hanging on his bedroom wall, and that he might want to go with that, that he made up his mind. He found a pirate captain set on a discount rack. Apparently, it needed some stitching but the Great Papyrus was ok with that. Miranda cackled at the mandatory mustache and wig that came along with it.

Flowey came next and, because he had no idea what to dress as, he was the hardest to shop for. In the end Miranda had asked him if he didn’t mind dressing as a female character. He asked her what she had in mind before giving an answer and she told him about a horror game named Ib in which one of the characters was a girl named Mary that, while initially seeming very friendly, in the end turns out to not even be human and didn’t hesitate to hurt others to get what she wants. Her outfit and hair color simply fit Flowey to a T. A long green dress and blond hair, represented by a yellow rose and carrying a palette knife as her weapon. 

Flowey, uncertainly, went along with Miranda’s suggestion and they bought a pot decorated with yellow roses all around that Miranda would later decorate with pieces of thorn canvas and paint, a green doll dress that would later be altered to fit the character, a palette knife, and some yellow fake doll hair to make the wig. Miranda, admittedly, had never made a wig, but was sure that after some tutorials about doll wig making she would manage something.

In the end, despite Miranda insisting on simply buying a cape and a set of sharp teeth that came with a red liquid packet, because she had just the perfect dress at home to dress as a sexy vampire lady, whatever that might be, Papyrus finally convinced her to buy a ninja costume that wasn’t as revealing as the others. Aside from the cleavage, that is. She did say she would at least add a black or red top underneath it so as to fight the cold and avoid curious glances.

After shopping they decided to stop somewhere for an afternoon snack. They stopped at Muffet’s. Miranda ended up telling some stories about her family. Papyrus was extremely curious about them but he knew that whenever someone asked her about them she would find a way to deflect the question. At least she didn’t pretend to be extra cheery around everyone while, at the same time, withdrawing inwards where it really mattered like Sans did… well, to be honest, it seemed that Miranda was permanently in a state of being withdrawn inwards, but at least she seemed to be slowly opening up as time went by, even when she was asked questions she would rather dodge.

One thing was for sure, with Miranda he didn’t feel afraid of asking questions. She might choose not to answer and he would respect that. That was why, when she mentioned how her sister was the coolest, he decided to ask about her.

“YOUR SISTER SEEMS LIKE A VERY INTERESTING PERSON.” She flinched at his words so he changed his question about her a little. It was no use asking his dear friend something she wasn’t comfortable with, after all. “CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT HER?”

Miranda relaxed again and he felt relieved he didn’t ask her why her sister wasn’t with her. Though he wasn’t afraid to ask her the hard questions, he certainly didn’t like the glint of sadness in her eyes as she thought he was going to ask something far more serious. 

“My sister was the coolest. She graduated in Law back in Portugal. She managed to get to District Attorney and let me tell you, it was no easy feat for someone like her. First off, she was a woman and that area is mostly male dominated back there. Second off, she had no renown last name to her or connections to powerful people and those idiots put a lot of weight on such things, even though it’s stupid because having a renown last name doesn’t mean they’re any good at the job itself. In fact, the opposite is true. And third, only a few people can get to be district attorneys or judges every once in a while, and that means the fights get pretty fierce over who can get a spot and it means that all the connected people get a shot at it first.”

“THAT MEANS YOUR SISTER IS THE GREATEST AT HER JOB. WOWIE!”

“I’m pretty sure she is. And she’s so cool too. Dealing with criminals usually means she has to deal with danger face to face. She once had a potential wife abuser scream at her face because he wanted to sue his wife over some minor thing. He’d been told that his motives weren’t valid but if he wanted his claims to be reevaluated he needed request them again in a certain amount of time. He completely missed that deadline and was insisting on having them reevaluated all the same. He was raging and yelling and her co-workers were afraid and, though she was afraid inside, outside she was looking as cool as cucumbers.”

“Yo, that’s so cool.” MK said.

“And she was very smart and all around the sort of person I could never hope to become.”

“What do you mean?” Frisk asked.

“Well, she was always the one who had everything stacked out against her and she always managed to beat all her adversities seemingly with ease while me… well… I was never a hard worker, and I certainly give up easily. I was always a mess in my head and that messed with everything else. She never let her worries weigh her down like I did. I was always weak and would only become a bit stronger when there truly wasn’t any other choice.”

“BUT AREN’T YOU STRONG NOW? I MEAN, YOU LIVED ALL ON YOUR OWN AND WORK HARD AND EVEN SAVED ME AND MK AND FRISK.”

She smiled sadly and he feared he already knew the answer to his question.

“Why do you think that is?”

“Ugh your chitchat is making me sick. You are sounding more and more like the smiley trashbag!” Flowey intervened.

Now that he mentioned, Papyrus supposed that Sans sounded like that sometimes too. Especially when he talked about how cool he, the Great Papyrus, was. But then again, he was pretty cool if he said so himself, and he said so.

“Do I?” Miranda asked, tilting her head a bit.

With that, Papyrus knew that the subject of her sister was over, as she was sure to redirect the attentions to somewhere else.

As predicted, she immediately changed topics to his brother, since Flowey had mentioned him, and how he seemed to like a music named Megalovania as well as a song called Midnight Crew. Papyrus guessed that the Midnight Crew one was funny.

They returned home, victorious in their quest for Halloween attires and, Papyrus in particular, a little bit more elucidated on Miranda’s mysterious sister. In the end of the day he knew that, as much as the attire Miranda had chosen covered her true face, the mask she wore on her past was far trickier to uncover. He wondered when she would finally let them all see what was underneath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus is more attentive than he lets on...
> 
> Next chapter: Soulbots
> 
> so,,, here are two of the costumes:
> 
> (Miranda’s costume: https://www.aliexpress.com/item-img/Halloween-Cool-Adult-Women-Black-Gold-Ninja-Samurai-Cosplay-Costume-For-Stage-Performance-Or-Masquerade-Party/32735996157.html?spm=2114.10010108.1000017.2.1fGoDy )
> 
> (Papyrus costume: https://www.aliexpress.com/item-img/Superior-quality-men-s-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-Pirate-Costume-Halloween-Cosplay-costumes-Hero-clothing-handsome/32577153028.html?spm=2114.10010108.1000017.2.IGO2aX )


	31. Chapter 30: Thank You BP!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You try out the soulbot prototype.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter tittle brought by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diU70KshcjA

You closed your eyes and focused only on the sensations running through you. Rajani copied your focus dutifully. You’d been trying for over a month or two to bring your soul out by yourself and you could have sworn you felt something last time you tried. A tingling of sorts.

You focused on how and where you had felt that tingling and tried to replicate the same feeling from those times before. It started out quietly, as if hesitant. You’d realized, for your last attempt, that you shouldn’t force it. So, instead, you decided to replicate feelings of safety. Eventually the sensation you had grown accustomed to, of when your soul was out, permeated your being and you opened your eyes.

Finally! Success! 

It still looked beautiful, but you knew that was the novelty of seeing a soul in a manner of speaking. Though you had only seen it once, you knew that Frisk’s was far more radiant than yours. Undyne’s too. Still, this was no time to compare your soul to other people’s. This was the time to study it. Also, some curiosity.

Toriel did mention Monsters had sex with souls for reproduction, and you knew you felt the icky feeling of having electrodes glued to your soul. That made you theorize that your soul was capable of feeling pleasure as well. Other sort of stimuli too, probably. 

Perhaps it was reckless of you to explore on your own but hey, you wouldn’t go ask Alphys about how to properly masturbate in regular sex. Why would you ask her the ins and outs of soul fondling?

You knew from memory that touching the jagged horizontal crack would lead you to remember the most traumatic thing in your life. You decided to touch the old scar instead. You relived the moment Sophie had turned on you. Daniel’s too. Theory confirmed.

You reached for an unmarred part and carefully slid down a finger. You shivered at the sensation a bit. It wasn’t as strong as you expected but you supposed it was just because it was you touching yourself. It there was someone your soul had grown numb to was you. It already inhabited you daily so your finger touching it probably didn’t faze it. 

You wondered about other people touching it, though…

*Knock knock

Darn! 

You quickly tugged your soul back inside your chest before telling whoever that they could come in. Alphys’ head peeked around the door.

“H-hi. I just g-got home and I want-ted t-to test the p-prototype.”

“Oh! It’s ready?”

“Y-yes.”

“Ok, so talk me through it.”

She entered with a case in hand and put it over one of the boxes. She opened the case and took out a six-inch-tall robotic figure. It had a heart shaped screen on its chest that was turned off and her face looked like yours to a T -if yours was made of metallic parts-. Alphys had input dark red fake hair like you had asked on her head but it was too long. The robot, aside from the chibi-style head, had no resemblance to Kyoko’s demons. In fact, it resembled more an Aradiabot body with a heart instead of an Aries symbol on her chest. And, now that you noticed, she had two antennas on her head where the horns would be.

“I-I made the hair t-too long so that Rajani c-could cut it as she wants. I t-t-tried to make the body like K-Kyoko’s demons b-but the t-tail thing wasn’t work-k-king right so… I t-t-took inspiration on the Homest-t-t-tuck fandom. I m-m-made these antennas to r-r-receive inp-put from t-t-t-the signal f-from this one.” She showed you a transparent looking device that you knew by now would be attached on your soul. “I t-t-thought it would b-be a neat idea t-to make y-y-your own troll horns and such. H-hehe.”

Rajani took over your body.

“Alphys…”

“Y-yes?”

“Get me some scissors.” She smiled and probably looked like a kid on Christmas.

Alphys produced some from her case and Rajani happily cut away the excess of hair. She could have chosen to cut it like her trollsona but then she would have to dye it black. Instead she cut it short and styled in a bit with hair wax so as to resemble the way your hair flowed naturally instead of leaving it completely smooth like it was ironed.

“How does this look?” She asked both you and Alphys.

_Looking good._

“It l-looks nice.”

“Perfect!!!” She exclaimed happily. “Can I design the horns now?”

“S-sure. I’ll m-make a mold lat-t-ter.”

Rajani grabbed a paper and drew a few heads in different positions to showcase the horns and then drew the horns themselves, coloring in afterwards. She then handed the paper to Alphys.

“I l-looks simpler t-t-then I thought it would.” She commented.

“I like simple.” She said happily. “Let’s do this thing, then!”

You and Rajani both focused on bringing your soul out. It seemed to get easier the more you did it.

“W-what are you-!? H-how-!? !!!!????” Alphys stammered.

_It appears we just broke Alphys…_

_**No shit!** _

After taking back your soul again you finally managed to calm her down enough so that she could explain why she got so freaked out.

“D-don’t ever j-just t-t-t-take out your s-s-s-soul l-like t-that! T-t-t-the only t-time you should t-t-take out your own s-soul is w-w-w-w-w-when you w-want to b-bond with s-someone. In m-m-medical p-p-procedures you l-let t-t-the d-doctors t-t-take it out.” She was stuttering and awful lot.

“Somehow I think that the way you use the word 'bond' means more than the usual meaning humans give to it.” You commented, back in control of your body.

“It’s s-sort of l-like s-soul s-sex b-but m-much m-more intimate. T-there are s-several d-degrees of b-bonding b-but the d-deepest is w-what w-we c-call m-mating. W-which is s-sort of l-like m-monster m-marriage.”

“Oh!”

“Offering up your s-soul l-like you d-did is s-sort of r-ritually k-k-known as wanting to b-bond. Its l-like offering up your w-whole s-self t-to s-someone else. It’s n-not s-something t-to b-be t-taken l-lightly! It’s t-the highest d-demonstration of t-trust you c-could g-give s-someone else! A-a-a-also its d-done privat-t-tely after an act-t-t-tual proposal.” 

“Oh!”

“T-that’s w-why t-the only acceptable w-way f-for d-doing s-soul r-related s-stuff w-with other p-people other t-than your bond d-date is t-to let t-them t-take it out.”

_**Wait, won’t you still be showing your soul anyway? What the fuck!** _

“Oh!”

_**Stop saying fucking ‘Oh’!** _

_Oh!_

“I’m sorry! I promise I didn’t mean anything about it.”

“I k-know. J-just don’t do it again.” She finally seemed to be stuttering less. “H-how did you even l-learn to p-pull it out, anyway?”

“I’m sort of curious about how my own soul works? Especially with the whole Rajani thing. I just wanted to study it, in a way.”

“I-m n-not sure t-that studying your s-soul like that is a g-good idea.”

“Well, we had to try something. We finally have proof that Rajani is as real as it gets!”

“I understand t-that, b-but it’s still n-not a good idea t-to do it on your own.” Alphys explained. “You c-could hurt yourself without m-meaning to.”

“Ok…” You acquiesced outwardly but you were still too curious to just give up on taking it out and touching it, but she didn’t need to know that.

_**Kinky.** _

_Shush, you!_

“L-let’s p-proceed, shall we?”

She drew your soul out, with the transparent antenna in her hand. She lathered some sort of substance on the antenna’s base and then placed it on the round top on the blue side of the soul. You felt a cold sort of feeling when the antenna touched your soul and shivered. It felt like that gel that doctors lather your skin with when getting it ready for an ultrasound, only stickier. 

= _Cringe!_ // **This feels so gross!** =

You looked around in search of the voice.

= _Huh!?_ // **The hell is this?** =

You saw the robot. The heart on its chest was now lit up with half of it grey and the other half blue.

“O-oh! I seem t-to have made the r-r-robot settings t-t-too sensitive and it’s now p-picking up both of you!” Alphys explained.

= _Huh!_ // **Fucking great!** =

= _Language!_ // **Grrr!** =

“I’m s-s-sorry!” Alphys was panicking at Rajani’s aggressiveness.

= _It was just a mistake. It happens._ // **Stop being so sensitive, dammit! I’m not the boogie man!** =

= _Really, Raj_?// **I’m not even a man! I’m all female!** =

“Look, just calm down. Raj can seem a bit harsh sometimes but she doesn’t mean no harm.” You said out loud as the robot repeated your words and Rajani grumbled about something.

“I’ll t-try to fix it r-right now! J-just wait a b-bit!”

= _Ok_ // **Ok!** =

You sat down as she fiddled with a few blueprints, getting ready to either open the robot or mess around with the antenna. As expected your mind started roaming but, this time, your wandering mind was very much exposed to Alphys.

= _..._ // **This is boring.** =

= _Let’s think about our original stories?_ // **Nah! We already do that too much!** =

= _This is so weird we have no privacy at all._ // **True dat! It’s like we’ve swallowed a truth serum or some shit!** =

= _Thank god we’re here alone with just Alphys! Can you imagine if everyone else was here?_ // **Don’t even start! What if they asked questions we didn’t want to answer?** =

“Is it true you can’t lie right now!?” Undyne crashed through the door.

= _Was she listening in through the door!?_ // **What! The fuck!** =

“Pff! Nah! Alphys just wrote it in her account just now!” 

“U-U-Undyne!”

= _Alphys, what the fuck?!_ //< **TRAITOR!!!!** =

“I’m s-s-s-s-sorry!!!!!”

= _Really, Alphys? Why?!_ // **Not forgiven!** =

“So…” Undyne looped her arm around your shoulder with a mischievous expression on her face. “Where should I start?”

“DON’T!”

“What? And missing out on the opportunity of getting the whole truth and nothing but the truth out of you? NO WAY, PUNK!”

= _Shit!_ // **Fuck!** =

“So…”

“S-so…?” You asked hesitatingly.

“SO…”

= _I’m not going to like this, am I?_ // **Urgh! If you aren’t going to say anything just leave!** =

“Papyrus or Sans! Which would you bone?”

= _WHAT!?_ // **Do skeleton even have anything to bone with?** =

= _NOT what I want to think about!_ // **What!? It’s a legitimate question!** =

= _Dude! NO!_ // **Aren’t you even a little bit curious?** =

= _Papyrus is like a lil bro to me and I hardly know Sans at all!_ // **That didn’t stop you before…** =

You blushed, grabbed the robot and fled the scene, your soul still floating around, all while the robot emitted a mix of “nopenopenope” on your part and Rajani’s laugh on the other.

“OH! SKINNY HUMAN! WOULD YOU LIKE-” Papyrus started once he saw you coming down.

“NOT NOW!!!!!”

= _nopenopenopenopenopenopenopenopenopenopenope…_ // **Bwahahahahahaha!!!** =

“SKINNY HUMAN! WHY ARE WE RUNNING?”

= _Why is he running with me!?!?!?_ // **BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!** =

“WHO’S THE LITTLE FRIEND YOU HAVE IN YOUR ARMS? AND WHY DO THEY HAVE TWO VOICES COMING FROM THEM?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!” Was the only sound coming out from your physical body.

= _Paps, no. Don’t ask about my soulbot!_ // **This shouldn’t be funny but, OMG!!!** =

“GET BACK HERE, PUNK!” 

= _Fuck, she’s catching up with me!_ // **Run faster, then!** =

“Gotcha!!!”

= _Too late!_ // **Fuck!** =

“You can’t escape me now!” Undyne added.

= _Ugh!_ // **Can you AT LEAST tell me about the dong thing? Do they have one or not?** =

= _RAJ!_ // **What?!** =

“Pff! How do you expect me to know that!?” Undyne replied.

“UNDYNE, WHAT EXACTLY IS HAPPENING?”

“The punk here just got the soulbot attached to her soul but it’s too sensitive and is catching literally everything she thinks! She can’t lie to save her life right now!”

“THEN ARE YOU APREHENDING HER FOR THE SAKE OF SAVING HER FROM POSSIBLE AWKWARD CONVERSATION?”

= _Paps, you are the best skeleton in the history of ever!_ // **Oooooo! Paps’ onto you, fishy Vriska!** =

Papyrus blushed at your comment.

“W-WOWIE! THANK YOU, SKINNY HUMAN!”

= _Adorable…_ // **…** =

Papyrus became even more orange in the face.

= _Goddamit! I wish I had a younger brother as adorable as you…_ // **Noooo. Paps, you are making it worse!** =

“NYEEEEEEEEEEEEH!” Papyrus became even more flustered.

Undyne merely laughed at the whole thing.

“Fuhuhuhu! This is priceless!” And then she added. “Hey, instead of asking me about dongs why don’t you ask Paps?”

“ASK ME WHAT?”

= _*Internal screaming_ // **Pall, you don’t wanna know!** =

“HUH!?”

Frisk, MK and Flowey entered the room to see what the commotion was about. Sans and Toriel came right behind.

Frisk looked between you and started signing.

= _Let’s see… ‘what’s’… uh… what’s that gesture?_ // **’Happening’.** =

= _Oh! Thanks!_ // **You’re welcome.** =

“Undyne wants to publicly shame me.” You reply. The robot in your arms echoes your words and adds Rajani’s input as ‘= **Understatement of the century** =’.

“Oh! That is the robot that Alphys was developing, is it not?” Toriel asked.

You didn’t bother replying vocally this time.

= _It is. It’s settings are too sensitive, though._ // **And fish breath over there interrupted Alphys from correcting her mistake by wanting to use this chance to pry all our secrets from us.** =

“Hey!” Undyne protested Rajani’s derogatory nickname.

= _Papyrus was being my hero by stopping her though._ // **Good skeleton. Best friend.** =

= _Now look who is getting sappy with the adorable skeleton!_ // **Shush! I was just trying to mimic a Homestuck thingy!** =

= _Sure you were…_ // **SHUT UP!** =

“so this is what’s it like to be inside your head. You are really giving Rajani a piece of your mind.”

= _Pfft! Hah!_ // **A piece of her mind, you say? How about I give her a piece of mine!** =

= _What do you even mea- wait… NO!_ // **WANT TO KNOW MIRANDA’S KINKS AND FETISHES, EVERYONE!!!???** =

= _RAJANI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ // **Miranda’s neck is particularly sensitive and she likes to have it played with! Don’t do that in a non sensual manner, though. She might still get too hot and bothered anyway!** =

= _NONONONONONONONO STOP SHUT THE FUCK UP!_ // **HAH! You can’t stop me by thinking of sex with Daniel right now. There are kids here, you know?** =

= _RAJANI! STOP THAT!_ // **Heh, nope! You guys should also know all about how she visits redtube regularly. Particularly in the tags of hentai and bid di-** =

= _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA_ // **OW! WTF, Mir! That’s loud!** =

= _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINEEDADIVERTIONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN! I KNOW!_ // **Urgh, what now?** =

= _~If you ever wondered why; Disney tells all and then lies~_ // **Not, not after ever after! It’s so catchy!** =

= _~Here’s what happened after all their dreams came true.~_ // **-dreams came true.~ GOD DAMMIT! Now you got me doing it too!** =

= _(shut up! I’ll let you be Jasmine and Pocahontas)_ // **Fine!** =

= _~I loved being princess down in this beautiful ocean blue; But mermaids are going missing they end up in someone's stew; So just try to put yourself into somebody else's gills; You're killing my ecosystem with fishing and oil spills.~ _// **~papapa parapa parara; papapapa parapa para; papapa parapa parara; papapapa parapa para;papapa parapa parara; papapapa parapa para; Oh no!~** =__

__= _~Thank you BP!_ // **Thank you BP-P-P~** =_ _

__= _~Thank you BP!_ // **Thank you BP-P-P~** =_ _

__= _~The British are killing, oil is spilling; Now I can't see... MY EYES!_ // **bah bah bah bah bah** =_ _

__= _~China men feast on Flounder's fins; Plus the Japanese killed all my whale friends; Oceans are browning; I think I'm drow-_ // **bah bah bah ba-** =_ _ ____

__“I think that is quite enough, my child. Undyne is getting quite disturbed enough as it is.” Toriel interrupted you._ _

__“Huh!?”_ _

__Indeed the fish monster seemed a bit green at the cheery melody with such dark lyrics and though it didn’t refer to a fish monster, it was referring to a lot of sea life, which could be construed as a threat._ _

__“Oh!” = _Oh!_ // **Bwahahahahahaha! This is priceless!** =_ _

__“I want to hear the rest of that song!” Flowey affirmed with a wicked grin stretching on his face._ _

__ = _You would._ // **Serves fishy right!** = _ _

__“Yeah… just go to Alphys again…” Undyne replied to Rajani. “Get that thing corrected.”_ _

__ = _THANK you!_ // **Finally!** = _ _

__You returned to your room where Alphys still was, looking at her blueprints. Once she saw you she immediately grabbed the soulbot, opened a latch on its back and started fiddling with the wiring inside.  
You tried your best not to think of anything but it either wound up with the robot repeatedly saying ‘ = _don’t think, don’t think, don’t think_ =’ as Rajani grumbled about something again, or with you singing After Ever After which, thankfully, Alphys was too focused on her work to notice._ _

__What!? It was a catchy song!_ _

__After she was done and took the antenna out to make some repairs at another time you absolutely refused to leave your room for that day. Especially after Rajani’s spiel about your visits to Redtube. There were somethings that no one needed to know about you and that was one of them._ _

__‘Thank you BP’ indeed. Bitch Pervert, AKA Rajani, that is. Definitely not the oil company!_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looking back this would have been a great chapter to introduce Burgerpants because of the title XD
> 
> next few chapters will be the Halloween arcs and the very next one has a big ball of fluff there ;P


	32. Chapter 31: Everybody Hail to The Pumpkin Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda is temporarily a recluse, Sans makes it all better, Halloween party, dancing ;P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ended up being longer than I expected, but then again fluff and romance require more space ;P
> 
> now, yall know the 'This is Halloween' song. the other one (the slow dance romantic one) is this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sMw6E8EgcI  
> enjoy (it took me a while to find the perfect one)
> 
> there's a drawing of everyone's costumes for halloween in the end notes, btw

You don’t know how, but after that blunder with your soulbot you managed to stay all day holed up in your room. Seeing you self-imprisoned in the room, your pack seemed to think you were too injured to move and brought you snacks. The fact that you still had a heavy flow from your period probably helped cementing that notion. You even had your computer there and everything! You could work on your original stories all you wanted.

The only true challenge was bathroom breaks. As wonderful as your temporary room was, it didn’t have a bathroom, so you had to use the one in the hall.

That meant that, every time you felt the need to use it, you had to listen through the door to hear if anyone was there for a couple of minutes, only to dash towards it if the path was certain to be clear and then repeat the same procedure on the way back. Thank god you were good at holding it for several hours.

You had, of course, received some knocks on your door after it became clear you weren’t coming out. Everyone got a chance to knock at least once, Undyne, and Sans being the most prolific knockers.  
Undyne had wanted to tear the door down when you didn’t reply to her or simply told her to ‘leave you the fuck alone’. Apparently Toriel was very much against that idea and reigned her in with the promise of making her pay for the door herself. Considering Undyne and Alphys were gathering money to buy a house Undyne felt it was more prudent to wait.

Toriel had only knocked once or twice to ask you to join them for meals and accepted your replies. She seemed to know you needed your time alone after all that had happened. Frisk, with Flowey, and MK also made their appearances, mostly to ask how you were feeling and telling you how bad everyone else felt, as well as telling you stories. Asgore had only knocked once to ask if you were ok and if you wanted some tea.

Alphys only knocked a few times to continuously apologize for posting your status in her media account and leading Undyne to you.

Papyrus had gone there a few times to talk to you, as concerned as Asgore was, but more determined in his pursuits. You did hold some short conversations with him. You enjoyed his visits a whole lot.

Sans was your favorite visitor, though. He mostly practiced knock knock jokes with your room door. It was as if he was trying to make you feel at ease with jokes.

But, despite all their efforts, you remained locked inside, only opening the door to let your pack in and out and to go to the bathroom. You even had story time with Papyrus in the hall listening to you through the door.

You refused to talk to Rajani at all. She had been the biggest perpetrator, after all.

But now it was a new day. And to make matters worse it was Halloween. So there was nonstop knocking on the door, trying to get you to come out in full costume. 

You had considered whether to come out or not, especially when Papyrus or the kids asked you to. You even took out your costume from the wardrobe and hung it on the knob of your bedroom door.

You could swear that, if the costume was alive, it would be glaring at you in judgmental silence but you knew it was just the guilt of being selfish and nothing more.

You decided to distract yourself from all of them by re-reading the ‘Skip Beat!’ manga.

…

That didn’t last long.

“knock knock.” Sans said from the other side of the door. 

You sighed because you knew that ignoring him wouldn’t do anything, he would just insist. For someone so ‘lazy’ he was an awful lot of determined when he wanted something. You dragged yourself close to the door just as he repeated the knocking sound.

“Who’s there?”

“theodore.”

“Theodore who?”

“theodore won’t open so I knocked.”

You snorted slightly.

“Knock Knock.” You said back. You weren’t very good at knock knock jokes but after all he had done to keep you entertained the previous day you might as well go for it.

“who’s there?”

“To.”

“to who?”

“It’s ‘to whom’, silly!”

This time he was the one who snorted.

“knock knock.” He recovered fast from the novelty of you telling a knock knock joke.

“Who’s there?”

“orange.”

“Orange who?”

“orange you goin’ to let me in?”

You didn’t smile this time.

“what? didn’t find that one _humerus_? i have more. knock knock. ”

“…who’s there?”

“dozen.”

“Dozen who?”

“dozen anyone wanna open the door?”

“… No.”

“knock knock.”

“Who’s there.”

“adore.”

“Adore who?”

“adore is between us. open up.”

“C’mon Sans, just give it a rest already!”

“knock knock.”

“Urgh! Who’s there?!”

“iva”

“Iva who?!”

“iva sore hand from knocking so I’m going to teleport in.”

That was the only warning you had before Sans appeared in front of you in a blue flash. You yelped and tried to find a place to hide but he grabbed you with his magic and sat you on your own bed as he sat beside you.

“Sans! What the actual hell!? Get out of my room!”

“nope.”

“Then let me go at least!”

“ok.”

You felt your body free for a whole two seconds. Before you could process your freedom and bolt he looped and arm around your waist keeping you in place.

“Sans!”

“what? i let you go, didn’t i? i never said i wouldn’t grab you again.”

You sighed even harder.

“What do you want?” You asked at last, feeling your face flaming up from embarrassment.

“you know you don’t have to feel this ashamed about all those things, right? we are in no position to judge. everyone has their own kinks and ''weaknesses, after all.”

“Yeah, you just are able to keep them better secrets than I am.”

“i’m pretty sure Alphys and Undyne watch plenty of hentai too.” Sans told you. “you don’t really need to feel embarrassed over that.”

“Yeah sure whatever.”

“and to answer slasher’s question… yeah, skeletons have dongs.”

“YOU HEARD THAT!? HOW!? YOU WEREN’T EVEN IN THE ROOM!!!!” Your blush level maximized for sure. There was no way you could blush redder than you were now. You were sure that if water hit your face it would sizzle with how hot it felt.

“i was close to the kitchen door. neither you, slasher, undyne or paps are exactly the quietest people.”

“URGH! How are you not embarrassed by this conversation!” He wasn’t even blushing, goddammit!

“i prepared myself before coming in. make no bones about it, i’m pretty embarrassed, myself.” he admitted finally letting himself blush a bit. “let’s face it. this is not exactly a casual topic of conversation. but it’s what you need it to be if you are to come out of your room ever again.”

“Wow. I guess you’re right.” You admitted in surprise after pondering his words. “But still… You don’t have to force yourself.”

“nah. i’m not forcing myself. not any more than you are, anyway.”

“Hmm…”

“and to make it even… my weak spot is my ribs near the spine. i like to be grabbed and stroked there.”

“I don’t really need to know any of that…” You hid you face in your palms hastily. Could this conversation get any more awkward!?

“and i really didn’t need to know your neck is sensitive but you’re the one feeling bad about it, not me.”

“Thanks, I guess…” You finally said, but still refused to unbury you face from your palms

“if it helps you come out of the room…”

“Do I really have to?”

“yep!” He said, and then asked. “feel better?”

“A bit…”

“but still not enough.” He stated it, not asked.

“…”

“i guess i just need to keep embarrassing myself even further.”

You blushed even redder at that. You didn’t even know it was possible. You had thought you had already reached maximum blush potential! Apparently, you broke the scale of blushing just then. Your face felt like the surface of the sun.

“Are you trying to make me be too uncomfortable to be in my room just for the sake of me leaving?”

“perhaps…” He said, smirking, which counted and a veiled confession on his part. “paps is really worried, you know? It’s not often that my very cool brother requests me to help him out with something.” And now not only did he partially admit it but was also guilt tripping you!

“Urgh! Fine!

“fine what?”

“Fine, I’ll come out!”

“are you just trying to get me to leave the room and then return to your self-imposed imprisonment?”

“No…” _Maybe…_

“liar.”

“Darts!”

“do i have to make every single one of them confess to their kinks too?”

“NO! God, no! Wait… Oh, you were just kidding right now, weren’t you?! You bonehead!”

“heh. i always thought of myself as more of a _numbskull_ , actually.”

“Sans!”

And from out of the door came at the same time an irate ‘SANS! DO NOT CORRUPT THE SKINNY HUMAN WITH YOUR DREADFUL SENSE OF HUMOR!’. Apparently, Papyrus had been about to knock.

You, Sans and Papyrus chatted for a while and, unknowingly, you began to relax. Sometime in between, Sans had let go of your waist without you even realizing it and, by the time you had, you didn’t feel the need to flee anymore.

Eventually, with a mix of ease over all that Sans had done for you, and guilt for worrying Papyrus, you finally agreed to come out and meant it. Sans finally got out of your room and you changed into your costume.

You didn’t just add the under shirt in the end. You also wrapped a scarf around your neck over the hood. The hood was too loose and last thing you wanted was for it to fall back with a sudden burst of wind. While the scarf didn’t secure it one hundred percent, it was better than nothing.

Sans was gone by the time you came back out but Papyrus was still standing there, waiting for you. He seemed to sigh in relief when he saw you close the door behind you once in the hall.

“Sorry for worrying you.” You apologized feeling ashamed of your actions.

“NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THAT, SKINNY HUMAN. I KNEW YOU ONLY NEEDED SOME TIME AND ENCOURAGEMENT. FORTUNATELY, SANS WAS ABLE TO GIVE SOME TO YOU. WITH MY HELP, OF COURSE!”

“Of course.” You agreed with a smile.

“I’VE GOT TO SAY, HOWEVER, THAT AS MUCH AS I AM GREAT IN EVERY ASPECT, I CANNOT TAKE CREDIT OF SANS’ ACTIONS TODAY. I NEVER REQUESTED HIM FOR HIS HELP AND IT CONFUSES ME TO NO END WHY HE WOULD SAY SO.”

“Wait, really!?”

“INDEED. THOUGH NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT, MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE. IT SEEMS TO ME HE WAS MORE WORRIED ABOUT YOU THAN HE CARED TO ADMIT. PERHAPS HE IS FINALLY STARTING TO SEE YOU AS A FRIEND!! WOWIE! THIS IS THE BEST NEWS EVER! THANK YOU, SKINNY HUMAN!”

“But I didn’t do anything!”

“BUT YOU MUST HAVE! SURELY SANS WOULDN’T WORRY ABOUT YOUR WELL BEING IF YOU HADN’T DONE SOMETHING RIGHT. WELL… YOU ALREADY DO A LOT OF THINGS RIGHT. THEN YOU MUST HAVE DONE SOMETHING EVEN RIGHTER THAN YOUR USUAL RIGHT!”

You smiled at his antics and wondered why Sans had felt the need to lie to you. You didn’t pay it any mind for now and decided to brave your fears, entering the living room.

No one reminded you of the previous day, thankfully, and you received a lot of compliments over your outfit and the ones you had helped MK, Frisk and Flowey with. Papyrus looked hilarious with a mustache and his whole get up reminded you of a character from One Piece that was a skeleton. The personality didn’t match, though.

Alphys was disguised as MewMew, Undyne was dressed as some OP character with a massive sword that probably belonged to Bleach but you weren’t sure because you had never seen the whole series, Toriel was dressed as Beldam from Coraline and Asgore was dressed as Mayor of Halloween Town.

Sans was the only one not in costume yet. He kept saying he had more than enough time before you left.

Aside from disguising and walking about that way it didn’t seem like there was much planned aside from eating dinner out. Apparently Grillby and Muffet had decided to join forces that holiday and prepare a joint party. Those plans had been made a whole month ago and it seemed that Grillby’s attack hadn’t deterred either of them.

There would be a fee everyone needed to pay to come in. The owners did need to earn something, after all. But aside from that it was free for all.

During that joint party the TV would be on and, ever since they had learned the hour at which the movie your team had produced would play, they had decided to incorporate it into the party as well.

But you still had the whole day ahead of you before you had to leave for the joint party. You ended up just celebrating on the mansion for most of it. Mid-afternoon came the time for you to leave. The joint party had to be held before dark so that you could all go trick or treating afterwards.

That was when Papyrus finally convinced Sans to get dressed. You… seriously didn’t know what he was dressed as. He _sported_ -Pfft! Not funny!- a full basketball regalia and would have looked ready for a team match if not for the golden brown floatie around his waist that seemed to be covered in a white paste that resembled icing and several colored rectangular scraps of paper.

“What...” You said and he smiled wider, meaning he wanted someone to ask him about his costume.

You caved in.

“What exactly are you dressed as?”

“dunkin’ donuts”

You face palmed.

“I DON’T GET IT.”

“It’s a visual pun” You explained.

“OH!” Papyrus said with understanding. 

After a moment, the word ‘pun’ finally clicked in his mind. 

“SANS!!!” He protested.

With that issue resolved… well mostly, since Papyrus was still insisting on having Sans change into a real -and less punny- costume, you finally headed to the party. Both monsters had rented a large space in which several people would fit. After paying the fee to a cute little spider monster near the door, the cobwebs hung over the entrance, that were keeping people from coming in without paying, parted and they entered.

All the tables and chairs were on the edges of the space, the center being for dancing. There was a door to the kitchens where Fuku was taking requests from costumers that were already there. You were initially surprised to see both humans and monsters alike in that space. You weren’t so surprised when you later saw your team celebrating there, both with their families or alone. 

You tried to avoid them.

…

They found you anyway and teased you to no end for finally celebrating with them. Sort of, anyway. 

You mostly sat at the table sipping some cocktail beverage, not really wanting to embarrass yourself by attempting to dance. Even Sans was nodding his head to the rhythm on the dance floor! Once again, your asocial tendencies didn’t last long. 

Undyne came to the table for a sip of her own drink and noticed you still sitting there.

“I haven’t seen you on the dance floor yet, punk.” She commented.

“I’m people watching.”

“Not anymore!”

And, as predictable, she begun dragging you away from your den of peace and harmony. Once on the dance floor you simply stood there awkwardly as she shook her whole body to the beat.

“No need to be all stiff. Just dance, punk.”

“Yeah… how about no.”

“Idea rejected!” And then she shouted. “PAPYRUS! GET OVER HERE!!!”

“YES, UNDYNE?”

“The punk is being shy about her dancing.”

“OH. THAT WON’T DO!” He commented. “WORRY NOT, SKINNY HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL CHACE THE SHYNESS AWAY WITH MY COOLNESS!”

“Please don’t...”

Your pleas went ignored.

He dragged you off to the dance floor and started twirling about with you in tow as well as doing some more complex moves. You felt like a literal rag-doll throughout the whole ordeal. You were relieved when that song ended and he let you down.

Not to diss Papyrus, but you seriously hoped you wouldn’t have to dance with him again. You obviously didn’t have the energy required to be Papyrus’ partner in dance.

Looking around, Undyne seemed as enthusiastic as Papyrus but fortunately was too busy with her Alphys and… Was Toriel actually dancing near Asgore!?

Not with him just yet but, damn, she was definitely putting on a show! She moved with grace in a way that looked innocently sexy but by the way you saw her sometimes glance at Asgore you knew she was monitoring his reactions.

You would definitely feel like a third wheel if you joined them. You preferred to avoid such awkward situations whenever you could. It’s not like they needed a chaperon or something.

Frisk, MK and Flowey were running about greeting several monsters and humans instead of dancing. Frisk was even offered the costume props of several of the people they talked to. They wielded fake swords, bows and arrows, tomahawks and several others. They seemed to linger a bit on an extremely realistic looking plastic knife from Greg’s, your boss, Jack the Ripper costume. MK wasn’t handed the props most of the time, but still got to play with some. Flowey was the one left out, considering he already had a pretty sharp-looking and actually real palette knife. You considered joining them since they weren’t dancing but… yeah, meeting new people in such a large bulk would confuse you to no end. You were never any good at remembering faces and names.

And then you spotted Sans leaning against a wall. Apparently, as soon as Papyrus’ attentions shifted to you he had felt he was free to leave the dance-floor.

On a first glance, he seemed fine, content in observing the people dancing but, when you actually stopped and focused, you could tell that his mind wasn’t even in this time and place and that, despite the smiled plastered on his face, he wasn’t feeling very cheerful. 

As you got to know Sans you began to realize that, just like the current situation, there was more to Sans than what met the eyes. It was easy to be deceived by the cheerful jokester persona he liked to put out, or his overprotective brother shtick but lately you had begun to realize there was more in there. 

This time it seemed that what he was hiding was painful, going by the slight frown in his bone brows

One look back at Toriel’s seductive dancing and you wondered if that was the cause. After the way he’d looked when he’d eavesdropped on your conversation with Toriel about love and second chances… and how she was reconsidering Asgore… The more you observed the more you were convinced that those feelings weren’t platonic but one sided.

It really wasn’t any of your business but… after the kindness he had been showing you in these past few days? Staying awake the whole night to take care of your nightmares after Grillby was attacked? Coming to get you at work out of the blue? Purposefully embarrassing himself just so you wouldn’t feel too bad about Rajani’s blunder?

No, you couldn’t just leave him be after all he had done for you. You doubted he would tell you about how he was feeling. That was just the way Sans worked. He’d rather keep feelings, especially the less positive ones, secret. But you could distract him long enough to get him out of this funky mood, though.

You also paused long enough to wonder if it perhaps wasn’t related to Toriel at all. You had also noticed that sometimes, without any influence on Toriel’s part, the skeleton seemed to suddenly look like he’s got the weight of the world on his back and no one to rely on. You remembered the nightmare he had some time ago and couldn’t help but wonder if those expressions were related to that.

As things were it was more likely for him to be concerned with Toriel, though.

In the end the cause didn’t really matter. Whatever it was that was causing that heaviness on his shoulders at this moment, you would take it upon yourself to get him lighten up and get is troubles out of his mind.

You advanced towards him, resolute.

“Hey, Sans! Taking a breather?”

He startled at your voice. He had definitely been lost in his mind if he hadn’t noticed you walking his way. You smiled at having been able to startle him for once.

“heya. nah, just _skullking_ about. you know how it is. ”

“No, I don’t. Enlighten me in your mysterious ways, oh Calcified One!” You joked.

It had been so unexpected that you actually got a laugh out of Sans for your troubles.

“lot’s of ketchup and puns, my pupil!” He finally retorted.

“There sure are a lot of _pupil_ here tonight.” You commented, side glancing at him for a reaction to your lame pun.

His smile widened.

“ _eye_ certainly am beginning to feel a bit overcrowded in here. ”

“I think I’ll take _iris_ to say that we might even need to step out for a while.”

“is that a very _cornea_ way to ask me out? ”

“As much as this would be the _optical_ moment for it, no, not really. And I’m out of puns.”

“so… what made you decide to come talk to an old bones like me?”

“You aren’t that old… are you?”

He deadpanned at you for a few seconds before his face split into a smile again. You realized he had done that to trick you into second guessing yourself.

“nah, i’m not. I’m only thirty.”

“Four years older than me. If you are an old bones then I’m an old hag.”

“you’re twenty-six? and… a hag?”

“Yup. Just above a fourth of a century. And yes, a hag.”

“but you ain’t ugly.”

“You flatter me but I’m definitely not winning any beauty pageants.”

“you like to sell yourself short, don’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“you are constantly saying self-depreciating things, haven’t you noticed?”

Hammer meet nail. Change subjects! Fast!

“Well you’re one to talk. Weren’t you the one who just called yourself an old bones?” Nice save.

“… true.”

“HEY PUNK! Given up on dancing already!?” Undyne interrupted your conversation.

“Just… taking a breather.” You told her.

“You can take a breather while you dance! Come on!” She motioned for you to join her.

Seeing as Alphys, her dance partner up until then, was wobbling dizzily towards your table you seriously doubted you wanted to join her in specific but it was clear that if you didn’t dance she would come and get you regardless.

With a heavy sigh, you grasped Sans’ arm tightly.

“If I absolutely have to, so will you! I’m not going to brave all that energy on my own!”

“what? lemme go!”

“Nope!”

Undyne seemed to become even more excited upon seeing you drag the skeleton with you.

“YEAH! Bring that nerd too!”

Apparently, the fact that you were dragging Sans behind you seemed to be good enough motive for her to leave you alone and find another dance partner. For once you were actually thankful for her shipper heart.

Just as you entered the dance floor the current music faded out and a new one started. You immediately recognized ‘This Is Halloween’ from Nightmare Before Christmas and began wildly gesticulating everywhere but never letting go of Sans.

_~Boys and girls of every age  
Wouldn't you like to see something strange?~_

_~Come with us and you will see  
This, our town of Halloween~_

_~This is Halloween, this is Halloween  
Pumpkins scream in the dead of night~_

_~This is Halloween, everybody make a scene_  
Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright  
It's our town, everybody scream  
In this town of Halloween~ 

He tried to escape for a while but after some time he finally gave up. Only then did you let go of him and started doing the most ridiculous poses you could while dancing. He seemed flabbergasted at it until you blew him a raspberry and winked. 

You crouched a bit, used your pointer fingers at each side of your mouth to indicate fangs, eyes wide open, as the next verse started and you sang in playback with it.

_~I am the one hiding under your bed  
Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red~_

He finally seemed to get what you were doing and smiled at you. A real smile this time. And then he joined you in your tomfoolery with the next line. For someone who didn’t know the lyrics he got by alright, pretending to be a monster from under the stairs with snake-like fingers and spiders in his hair.

“What hair, you have none.” You told him as you danced along and as the song insisted it was Halloween.

“i have in my dreams.” Sans commented back cheekily.

“I don’t think you need any. You are fine just the way you are, handsome.” You might have drunk a bit too much alcohol since you usually wouldn’t have made such a flirty remark. You made a note to call it a night on the alcoholic beverages.

He blushed so you still counted it as a victory.

You let him recover as you danced along the next few verses. Not long after, he joined your dancing again. Most of the song you mostly danced front to front making stupid faces at each other until the verses about Jack came and Sans teleported out.

_~Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back_  
And scream like a banshee  
Make you jump out of your skin~ 

Sans appeared right behind you and tackled you with a quiet ‘boo’ in your ear, making you literally jump up. You were starting to doubt him not knowing the lyrics. Then again, he never told you he didn’t. You had never asked, just assumed.

“Sans!” You complained. “As far as I know your middle name isn’t Jack.”

“nope.” He said still drapped over your back like a skeletal cape of sorts… plus the ridiculous floatie.

“By the way! Do you even have a last name? I never heard anyone call you anything other than Sans.” You said as you continued dancing with him on your back. He eventually slid down and as soon as his hold loosened you turned around and grasped both of his hands to twirl in a circle with him.

“i do. it's skellington.” He said casually and you snorted thinking it was a joke. “no, really. it is.”

“Wait, really!?” You exclaimed as you stopped dancing.

“yup. i was going to leave the last name slot blank but papyrus insisted we needed to get a proper last name and so did the lady in charge of registering our information. but me and paps weren’t reaching a consensus so I simply turned to the lady and told her to choose one. that’s how we came to have skellington as our last name.”

“Wow, Sans. What if she had chosen to call you Poopy or something!” You laughed. “That’s the laziest you’ve ever been, for sure!”

“back on it, if neither of them had insisted i pick a last name our last name would have been -insert last name here-.”

“Pfft! Seriously!? Oh man!” You laughed.

“i didn’t actually know who skellington was until frisk showed us the nightmare before christmas movie two weeks ago, to get us all into the halloween mood.”

“Ah, so that’s how you know the lyrics!”

“guilty as charged.”

“I assume, by Toriel’s costume, that you also saw Coraline, right?”

“yep.”

“I wish I was there. I never saw the whole movie.”

“the way everyone is going through all the animated movies it won’t be long before we are repeating the ones we’ve already seen.”

“Okay…”

The song ended and you noticed you were still clasping Sans hands in yours even after you had stopped dancing so long ago. Just as you were about to let go and head back to the table a voice interrupted your musings.

“HEY PUNKS!” Apparently Undyne had taken old of the DJ’s microphone, not that the DJ was anywhere to be seen. 

You were pretty sure he had been a ghost that looked even more nervous and shy than Alphys. Could all those people have scared him? You didn’t ponder much on the subject and focused on what Undyne was saying.

“The movie is about to play so this will be the last song. EVERYBODY TO THE DANCE-FLOOR! WE’RE GOING FOR A SLOW-DANCE NOW!”

A slow dance? Everyone? Shouldn’t it be for couples only? Or was this a monster tradition of sorts? You didn’t mind dancing crazy on purpose but slow dancing made you jittery.

“wanna go for it?” Sans asked.

You looked at him and blushed.

“I’m not very good at the whole slow dance thing.” You didn’t dance poorly but you did feel uncomfortable being that close to someone while dancing.

Last time you had slow danced was with Daniel and even then… well… the hugging was good. The fact that he felt the need to be lip locked most of the time didn’t. He really had changed a lot from the first time you two had danced together…

The new song began to play. You didn’t know what that song was but you recognized the voice of Hillary Scott, the lead singer of Lady Antebellum. You turned to Sans sheepishly as he had yet to let go of you, and recalled what you had been told about slow dance. 

You usually put both arms around the partner’s neck, but that was if you were intimate and you weren’t that kind of intimate with Sans. You only tossed one arm over his shoulder and let the other one remain in his hand. Who cares if it looked like a waltz!?

The other thing was look into your partner’s eyes instead of your feet. Looking at your feet would insure that you would only trip even more over them. Instead you would sway to his rhythm naturally if you looked into his eyes. It would help you avoid stepping on his feet on the long run.

Sans circled his free arm around your waist and pulled you a bit closer. You blushed a bit at it and decided it was best if you didn’t look him in the face after all.

You began swaying to the music as soon as the vocals began.

_~I know that the bridges that I've burned_  
Along the way  
Have left me with these walls and these scars  
That won't go away  
And opening up has always been the hardest thing  
Until you came~ 

Why did those lyrics had to be so accurate to you? Talk about coincidence.

_~So lay here beside me, just hold me and don't let go_  
This feelin' I'm feelin' is somethin' I've never known  
And I just can't take my eyes off you  
And I just can't take my eyes off you~ 

Ok, maybe not so accurate… You glanced towards Sans. It seemed he had just been waiting for you to look at him before smiling.

“why didn’t the skeleton dance at the disco?”

“Really, Sans!?”

He merely looked at you in expectation.

“Fine! Why didn’t he dance at the disco?”

“because he had no body to dance with.”

“You have a body though. What else would I be holding.” You pointed out.

_~I love when you tell me that I'm pretty_  
When I just wake up  
And I love how you tease me when I'm moody  
But it's never too much  
I'm falling fast but the truth is I'm not scared at all  
You're climbin' my walls~ 

The lyrics were getting further away from your idea of self.

“why don’t dogs make good dancers?”

“No idea!” You complied immediately so that he wouldn’t have to insist again. Resistance was futile anyway.

“because they have two left feet.”

“*Snort*. Dammit Sans!”

_~So lay here beside me, just hold me and don't let go_  
This feelin' I'm feelin' is somethin' I've never known  
And I just can't take my eyes off you  
And I just can't take my eyes off you  
Off you  
Off you~ 

You no longer cared about the lyrics. As far as you were concerned the music was just background noise. You didn’t even care or notice that you were literally swaying across the dance floor, twirling as if in a waltz.

“what do ghosts dance to?”

“Dunno, What?”

“soul music.”

You snorted again. Why couldn’t that man just dance like a normal person!? You weren’t complaining, though.

_~So lay here beside me just hold me and don't let go_  
Oh, this feelin' I'm feelin' is somethin' I've never known  
And I just can't take my eyes off you  
And I just can't take my eyes off you~ 

You only noticed the song was over when the last chords finally silenced. Sans cheekily winked at you, making you red in the face. Is eyes glowed in the darkened atmosphere as the party planners got ready for the movie.

“Your eyes look like stars in the darkness.” You commented, obviously still loose lipped from the drinks.

You turned even redder right after and Sans did the same but in tones of blue.

“yeah… you told me before.”

“I did!?”

“yup.” And then he deflected the attention from himself. “you also have pretty eyes, too.”

That made your heart flutter madly. Daniel had said the same exact thing the very first time he had danced with you. It was the only time he had done so… It was odd to hear the same thing from someone else. It was even odder to have your heart react the same exact way.

You dry swallowed and avoided looking into his eyes.

“You are just saying that.”

“i wasn’t.”

“I know my eyes are shit colored. Every single one of my classmates made sure to announce it pretty loudly in my face. But thanks for trying.”

“then they are pretty dim witted.”

The topic died there but you still blushed harder.

Instead of continuing to just stand there you decided to head to the table where everyone else was waiting already. Sans teleported ahead and got there faster. Papyrus scolded him for being lazy. 

…

You hoped the darkness hid your blush. You wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong ideas. You weren’t flustered by Sans complimenting you. You were flustered by having the one thing you disliked about your appearance that you couldn’t change -because you couldn’t handle contacts- being complimented.

That had always been a weakness, after all… 

Yup. It wasn’t about Sans complimenting you! You were sure of it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, as promised, here is the halloween costumes (was going to scan it for better quality but then i just thought 'meh, fuk it!' and posted the photo of the drawing anyway. XP)  
> 
> 
> Oh and, if it was too subtle, Sans was looking the opposite of cheerful when Miranda saw him because Greg handed Frisk a very realistic looking knife


	33. Chapter 32: Take This Nothingness From Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda has a heart to... non-heart with Flowey and finds out new information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wanted to find a way to sing the lullaby in this chapter (yes I literally translated a Portuguese lullaby to English) but I haven't found a way to do so yet without having to make a video. anyway, have fun with this chapter

No one spoke a word as the movie started. Amidst the whole confusion, you hadn’t gotten to see the full movie with the scenes back to back so it would be the first time for you too. You liked watching other people react to your creations, however. Always had. Which was why you focused on the monster and human faces rather than the scenes.

Every gasp of wonder at the beautiful visuals, every frown of sadness at the heartbreaking story, every jump after a jump scare, every time they tensed when waiting for something to go wrong, every time you got a chuckle out of them at a particularly funny scene. All those little moments were the things you cherished most in their reactions. 

Little did they know of that fact, too focused on the movie they were watching.

For something with such a tight budget, you had to admit your team at exceeded themselves.

You didn’t get embarrassed when the scene you sung at came up. You had been in a choir, for goodness sake. The character that you had ended up voice acting for was a human girl named Lilliana that used to have a sister and sang in the graveyard to her because she heard that Halloween was when the realm of the living and the dead were closest to each other at.

Your team had trouble finding a good sound you could use for Liliana’s Lulluby. You’d even considered doing a cover of an already existing song but that would put too much of a strain on the budged due to all the copyright infringement and the ‘You are my sunshine’ lullaby was already used too much. 

In the end, you ended up translating a Portuguese lullaby in a way that it still rang true to the original lyrics. The only word you couldn’t really translate was the part where the song talked about the boogie man because the Portuguese version only had two syllables and the English version of the name had three, which was already one too long to fit in the song. You ended up using ‘demons’ instead.

_~The moon rose up and grew tall far beyond_  
_The night has set as well_  
_Baby mine go to sleep_  
_Go to sleep and dream on_  
_Let the moon grow tall way up there.~_

_~The rattle he laid down and dropped with no fear_  
_His eyes will soon close too_  
_Nothing can keep the child_  
_From sleeping tight_  
_Neither demons or anyone will…~_

_~You shall see my love_  
_How good it’s to dream_  
_May God give you his_  
_Very best!~_

_~Baby mine go to sleep_  
_I’ll be watching for you_  
_Only to angels does_  
_The moon smile.~_

_~You shall see my love_  
_How good it’s to dream_  
_May God give you his_  
_Very best!~_

_~Baby mine go to sleep_  
_I’ll be watching for you_  
_Only to angels does_  
_The moon smile.~_

_~Only to angels does_  
_The moon smile!~_

_~Only to…~_

_~Angels does…~_

_~The moon smile…~_

Unlike the ‘You are my Sunshine’ song it didn’t mention the loss of the baby which further cemented Liliana’s denial over the fact her little sister was gone.

The only ghost monster in the party was uneasy around Liliana but everyone else dismissed his feelings.

The group of kids proceeded with their shenanigans, trying to figure out if there was a _human_ ghost terrorizing the neighborhood since a lot of people were reporting having their candy all stolen.

It turned out the group of bullies was responsible for the whole ordeal.

It the end the main characters, that were inspired by Chara and Asriel -Toriel’s and Asgore’s kids-, found out that Lilliana had been the ghost all along and her sister was the one still alive. The grave she sat by was, in fact, her own and her name was carved underneath all the moss that covered it. The sister she regarded so fondly would turn out to be the grandmother of one of the bullies, whom Lilliana proceeded to scold once she learned the truth.

The ending depicted the sisters reuniting and Liliana going into the far beyond, promising to be back next year. Carroll, Chara’s character, ended up living with their new monster family.

The Credits began rolling so the television was shut off. The other guests began talking but your group was still quiet. Not surprisingly, Toriel, Asgore, Alphys and Papyrus had tears in their eyes, though the latter insisted that something had entered his eye sockets.

Undyne wasn’t crying yet, but was pretty close to it. Frisk and Mk were cheering and Sans was… Sans. Really, he didn’t show his opinions on his face. You didn’t see Flowey anywhere, though.

You were distracted by everyone finally turning to you to compliment you.

“That was a wonderful story, Mirandy!” Frisk said.

“I loved all that suspense! We never knew when something would jump out at us!” MK added.

“And those JUMP SCARES! I still have chills from the scarecrow one. That guy was plain unsettling even after the scare!” Undyne commented.

“I-I-I d-didn’t like the j-j-jump scares m-much but… it g-goes with t-t-the spirit, I g-guess.” Alphys admitted.

“You did a good job representing all monsterkind… And my kids as well.” Asgore hid is face behind his paws so as not to let anyone see him cry now that the light was back.

“It was truly a very heartfelt and touching story even with all the touches of the weird and scary throughout the whole movie.” Toriel said, dabbing a cloth under her eyes.

“I MUST AGREE, SKINNY HUMAN! MY FAVORITE CHARACTER WAS COURIER, THE SKELETON KID. I LOVE YOUR PORTRAYAL OF HIM!” Of course Papyrus’ favorite character was the one he had designed for the story.

“courier was really cool, but i liked yorick better. he sure knew how to lift the _spirits_.” Little did Sans knew that the adult human he liked had been somewhat inspired on him. You would never tell. Never!

Once again you noticed a lack of participation on Flowey’s part. You looked at his flowerpot in confusion.

“Where’s Flowey?”

“Under the soil.” Frisk signed.

“Oh! … Why?”

Frisk shrugged seemingly unconcerned. You decided to ignore the issue for now and tagged along as the monsters said goodbye to the hosts before going on your way to trick or treating. You didn’t notice the sudden relief on Frisk’s face at you not prodding them for information.

Eventually Flowey came out from under the earth. Somehow his outfit was intact, which you excused with ‘magic’ once again, but he clearly wasn’t feeling in the mood to do any trick or treating, which was odd, since he had expressed great interest, especially in the tricking part.

“Are you ok, Flowey?” You ask, feeling concerned.

“What’s it to you?” He grumbled.

Frisk tried to distract you away but you were too focused on the flower to notice him signing.

“You aren’t acting your usual self.” You pointed out.

“I’m never acting like my usual self, you idiot!”

That was a confusing statement but you chose to ignore it.

“No, this is different!”

“Just leave me the fuck alone, you dumbass!!”

“Why, so you can mope?”

“WHAT IS IT TO YOU?! YOU DON’T KNOW ME! YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME! STOP PRETENDING TO CARE!!!”

“You’re right about one thing. I don’t know you. Not all of you anyway. But I know enough to see that you aren’t feeling ok. I never pretend to care about something. I simply do. So, tell me how I can help you.”

Apparently, Sans had sent a chilling stare Flowey’s wait, considering how quiet he became afterwards. Frisk looked just about done with everything.

“… I want to go home…” Flowey said softly.

“…Ok!”

“Wait, what?” He blurted out at your cheery and aloof reply.

“Toriel. I’m going to take Flowey home. He’s not feeling well and has been forcing himself for everyone’s sake. Frisk, bring some candy for Flowey too, ok? I’ll take him home.”

“By yourself, punk!?”

“I’ll be fine. It’s not the first time I’ve cruised these streets at this hour!” You turned with the flower pot now in your hands.” See ya home, guys. Enjoy the evening for me too.”

And with that you were off. You had caught Sans’ surprised and concerned expression as well as Frisk’s. They really didn’t have any faith in this little guy, did they? You weren’t concerned though. 

Well, perhaps you were a little concerned, after the fight you had with him it was a given, but not that concerned. Something was bothering the little guy and you didn’t like to see kids suffering. But before you could get far Sans caught up with you.

“i’ll take you.”

“Sans! I’ll be fine!” You said. You didn’t get embarrassed this time since you had put his compliment out of your mind for now.

“not up for debate.” And with that he took hold of your arm and pulled you and the flower to him, teleporting you away as soon as he got a good grip on both.

You almost screamed in shock because you weren’t ready for the darkness in between the void. You clutched him to you as hard as you could while brushing off the memories of that weird dream you had at the Oceanarium. You were pretty sure you could feel a distinct chuckle from him before you felt your feet hit solid floor.

“Sans, you are evil!” You grumbled unhappily while at the same time noting how warm he felt. Hm. You’d never noticed that before. 

You mean, you knew he was good to cuddle with but you never noticed how warm he was… Skeletons are really warm and comfy, it seems! The more you know!

Sans merely shrugged. You let go of him and looked around. He had teleported you inside the living room. Perhaps you could-

“I want to go to my room!” Flowey interrupted your line of thoughts.

He sprouted a few vines from his flower pot and used them to locomote out of your arms and up the steps. It was unusual for Flowey to choose that way of getting around. He mostly either let Frisk carry him or, if buried on the backyard’s earth, would go from place to place by digging underground. You had learned from Frisk that Flowey needed a lot of energy to use his vines to move around, hence why he rarely did it.

You were worried about him but decided to leave him for now. Clearly all he wanted was some time alone and you could understand that. But you still would check on him in half an hour.

You turned to Sans.

“Thank you for the ‘ride’. You better go now before they are too far away from where we left off.” You tell him, not wanting him to miss out on the celebrations.

“nah! too much walking for me. remember, i’m a lazybones.” Sans shrugged, flopping backwards to the couch.

“I dunno… You seemed quite swift on your feet on the dance floor tonight.” You commented with a giggle... and then proceeded to berate yourself for remind you of his compliment and making you blush a bit.

“ _ninja_ remind you how you let loose while dancing to the ‘this is halloween’ song? ” Sans shot back.

You blushed further in embarrassment, missing the pun completely in your haze of shame. Tipsy or not, it was still embarrassing being reminded of your… ‘moves’… outside of the dance floor. You preformed a ‘facepalm x2 combo’ at your own past self for being weird.

“Don’t remind me.” You said, voice muffled by your hands but still clear enough for Sans to understand.

“ _kunai_ just say that if it weren’t for those moves i wouldn’t have danced at all? ” Sans commented but the pun went unnoticed by you again as you were still too embarrassed to function properly.

“You can’t possibly mean that.” You replied.

“ _shuriken!_ ”

“Sans, I-!... wait…” And suddenly you realized what he had been saying all that time. “You have been telling puns all this time!?”

“took ya long enough to notice. was running out of material too. there aren’t much more ninja puns to make that aren’t too obscure.”

“Seriously, Sans!?”

“seriously. i either had to find a good placement for ‘katana’ or start spouting morbid puns about assassination and cutting. and it would be just downright poor _sportsmanship_ to switch into puns related to basketball or donuts without prior warning. "

“Sure it woul-… Sans!” You shouted as soon as you realized his pun and dug an elbow into his rib cage.

He winced a bit but didn’t stop laughing. Upon seeing that, you couldn’t help but grin a bit.

“If you don’t stop that you might be _sporting_ a few bruises tomorrow. You are playing dangerous _games_ by mocking a dame, you know?” You said to him.

“wow. two in a row. that’s _fowl play_. ”

“Do I need to get Flowey here to _referee_?”

“that would suck _balls_. ”

“Ok, ok. Enough sports puns. So… You are going nowhere… What do you wanna do in the meanwhile?

Sans shrugged.

“Ok, movie night it is!” You grabbed your laptop from where you left it in your room and sat next to Sans on the couch, pulling up google.

“What are you in the mood for, today?” he shrugged again in reply. “Halloween themed animations it is!”

“what, no typical horror movies? i thought that was the norm for the adults.” He asked confused.

“We don’t have Halloween in my country… well, we began copying other cultures but that’s just for the sake of selling stuff mostly. Traditionally we have no Halloween. With a similar sort of meaning and origins we have the Carnaval which is sort of a mardy gras, I guess?” You paused not wanting to induce the monster in error by giving anymore information you weren’t completely sure was true. “Regardless! I don’t adhere to the rules of what people think is an adult, considering most adults don’t adhere to them anyway.”

“oh, ok… why, though? you seem pretty adult to me.”

“My mom used to constantly call me childish and that I needed to kick my interest in Japanese cartoons to the curb and study. Funny thing, though. I did end up stop watching anime as much, but not because I was becoming an adult. And let’s not forget how everyone else in school were a bunch of morons who had far worse things to say about me. In the end, being called childish wasn’t the worse I had. Not when compared with everything else.”

“i suppose. how didja become interested in anime, though?”

“There were occasionally some anime series that would run in regular TV channels. The kind you didn’t-have-to-pay-extra-to-see sort of channels. Heck, my first two crushes were anime characters.”

“really? i thought it was that guy from your first and second grade in school.”

“No, that was my first love. I have a clear distinction between love and crush. A crush is when you see someone from afar or even know them somewhat but not that much. You may talk to them but you only really know them physically. Personality wise you just imagine how they would act in certain situations, which, obviously, if you don’t really know them, means it couldn’t be further from the truth. Basically, you are in love with the idea of the person, not the person themselves. What I consider love is when you actually do know the person, flaws, perfections and all, and still love them for it.”

“you seem pretty clear headed about it.”

“The best way to avoid hurting someone by mistake is being clear about what you want for yourself.”

“who were your crushes, anyway? the anime ones.” Sans asked. 

For a momment you asked yourself why he was even interested in the topic at all. It wasn’t like he was anything close to what Alphys and Undyne, the cupid wannabes, where. But then again it was better than silence, you guessed. You just wondered why talking about it felt awkward, though. Usually you have no problems about doing it.

“You’re not going to make fun of me, are you?”

“you think so lowly of me!? you _crush_ me. ” Sans said a bit dramatically.

“Sans!” You snorted out. Damn that man!

He looked at you in expectation.

“Fine! First one was silly. I don’t remember why I even liked him. It was probably because I didn’t really have boys in my neighborhood and mostly stayed at home since I was really little. I was still in kindergarten, after all. It was Son Goku from Dragon Ball.” You blushed a bit in embarrassment.

“i think i might have seen some comic books and recordings of that in the underground. alphys didn’t like those much.” He commented and then asked for the other one.

“Kenshin from Rurounin Kenshin! He was both adorable and manly and oh so gentle. He used to be a great fighter in a war and killed so many that it affected him deeply and he vowed not to kill another ever again. He sports a katana with the sharp end of the blade on the wrong side and tries to avoid fighting as much as he can. But he will fight if it keeps those he holds dear safe. Oh, and when he goes all ‘oro’! So cute!” At least with that one your past-self had actually made a good choice. “Too bad he already had a lady for him… and that he wasn’t real… But of course I’ve long gotten over it.” You chuckle awkwardly.

Sans seemed not to know what to say about that for a bit.

“i don’t think i’ve seen those.”

“I’m not sure Toriel would let us show it in Anime Night while Frisk is there. It does have violence in it, despite everything. And the manga is better anyway.” You turned to your screen again and remembered what you were supposed to be doing. “So… what Halloween themed movies have you seen so far?”

“oh. let me see… coraline, frankenweenie, corpse bride, monsters inc., nightmare before christmas, and both hotel transilvania movies.”

“Ok, so you haven’t seen ParaNorman yet.”

“nope.”

“Good.” You set up the movie from a free to watch site. “Ok, can you take care of popping some corn? I’m going to check on Flowey and see if he wants to join us.”

Sans frowned a bit at that but nodded anyway.

“call me if you need my help.” He said before teleporting away, probably to the kitchen.

You didn’t bother replying, since he was already away, and climbed up the steps. Once you reached Frisk’s door you knocked softly before opening the door to peer inside, like the nosy girl you were.

Flowey had tossed his costume off and discarded the rose flowerpot in favor of his regular one. the clothes and wig laid crumpled in the floor and the yellow and green painted flowerpot was tipped sideways, spilling the soil on the carpet. You could only see those because they were in full view of the moonlight coming from the window while Flowey himself seemed to be in a darker corner of the room. You were hearing sniffling coming from his direction.

“Flowey…” You started softly, though you weren’t quite sure what to say.

“Go away!” he shouted at you. 

You ignored his harsh words and walked in.

“Who told you to come in you IDIOT!?”

“I did.” You sat beside him and, in the penumbra, you noticed he was clutching a clay… doll? 

You couldn’t see it well and you weren’t really concerned with it. Your main concern was the kid.

“Are you ok?” You asked, pulling his pot into your lap and enveloping him in your arms.

“I’m fine! Let me go!”

“Then why are you crying?”

“I’m not crying! Leave me alone!”

“What can I do to help you?” You insisted, refusing to leave a child to cry alone.

That seemed to snap Flowey out of his denial in a flurry of rage.

“CAN YOU BRING THEM BACK TO LIFE!? CAN YOU MAKE IT SO IT NEVER HAPPENED!?!” he then had an outburst of mad laughter “DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN HELP ME? THEN YOU REALLY ARE AN IDIOT.”

You quietly shushed his mad laughter until he calmed down. His vine arms let go of the clay doll that rebounded in the edge of the pot before falling in the spilled soil from the other pot. Flowey was now laying limply from his stem, as if all energy had left him.

“I can’t bring anyone back to life or change the past. Neither can you. That much is true. But you don’t need to suffer alone. Even if I don’t know who you lost, it doesn’t mean I can’t be here for you. It doesn’t mean I don’t understand. You can cry. I won’t ever judge you for that.”

Flowey finally drooped towards your chest and you sat there patiently, hugging him towards you as his silent tears wet your clothes. Your instinct was to hum to calm someone who was upset but had so many people snap at you for doing it that you held yourself back.

You wondered if Sans was starting to get worried about your prolonged absence but decided that if he really needed to, he could always come up to check on you. So, instead of thinking about Sans, you focused on the flower monster in your arms.

Once it was over you went to the bedside table and put his flower pot there, lighting the lamp. Tugging at one end of your scarf, you held it out so he could wipe his face. Fortunately he refrained from blowing his nose. As he did that you knelt down to get the clay doll.

Looking closer it seemed to be the same modeling clay you had given out when everyone came to visit you at work so long ago. Flowey had bragged he would make the best character out of them. You had never seen the sculpture up until now. It was a bit stocky looking and deformed, but there was no denying the uncanny resemblance to Toriel’s and Asgore’s first human child, Chara.

…

The reason of all of his actions became evident… somewhat.

“You knew them while they were alive, didn’t you?” You asked softly as you carefully wiped the dirt from the clay doll, taking special care with it's now chipped chest from rebounding on the corner of Flowey's flower pot. You wondered how a kid that had lived so long ago was still a kid for all intents and purposes.

“…yes.” Flowey admitted reluctantly.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” You handed the now clean doll back to its rightful owner.

“Don’t be.” He said has he took it back and hid it in the drawer.

“Want to talk about it?”

“No…”

You nodded and went about putting away his costume and cleaning the mess on the floor.

“… yes.” Flowey said finally.

You halted your movements and, when it finally clicked that he had changed his mind you sat on the bed, near the bedside table. You waited for him to start. You wouldn’t pry anymore information other than what he wanted to tell you. You had your own secrets you wanted to keep, after all. It would be hypocritical of you to demand information -from a kid, no less- when you weren’t willing to be this cooperative right back.

“… they were my best friend.” Flowey started. “They weren’t in a good place when they ended up in the underground but they were getting better. If only I hadn’t told them about how the barrier worked… They wanted to free the monsters. We were the first people to be kind to them.”

Flowey dry swallowed, in a very likely urge to shut up before the tears started again.

“We knew about the Monster that merged with her human’s soul. It was a well-known story. And the amazing magic that seemed to be caused due to it just might be strong enough to break the barrier… Or so they thought. They ate a lot of buttercups and ended up very sick because of it. They planned to die and give their soul to me. No one else knew of their plan. No one but the two of us.”

You could see a big plot hole there. If only the two of them knew… how did Asriel end up in that whole mess in the first place? You didn’t interrupt, though.

“I guess you already know the rest. Both royal children died… yadda yadda yadda… And now I’m here. All alone. Soulless.”

“Soulless?” You asked, surprised?

You had learned pretty fast with the monsters that such simple expression from a human standpoint was far more meaningful to a monster. In fact, monsters never used that word and one could consider it a very serious swear word. For a child to use it so casually…

“Yes. Didn’t you notice I had no soul when you battled me, you idiot?!”

Looking back, you realized you had only seen Frisk’s soul. A candy red one. With Undyne you had seen an actual monster soul for the first time, and upside down heart the was mostly white but had some yellow glows coming from within. With Sans you had never actually been pulled into a battle per say, so it didn’t count. But with Flowey you never even saw the faintest shimmer of light.

“Alphys told me all living beings have souls… how can you not have one?”

“That’s because I’m dead.” 

With everything he had told you, you could begin to theorize what exactly was going on there, but you had too many questions and he didn’t see to intend on replying to you.

“But you can’t be dead. You are right here, talking to me! How can you have no soul, then?” You ask completely dumbfounded.

“I died but I was unintentionally brought back. Don’t ask me how, I don’t know and even if I did I wouldn’t tell you! It’s private.” 

“And… your soul didn’t come back with you?”

“Souls sever their connection with you once you die.”

“How so?” As far as you recalled you soul wasn’t exactly attached any other time you fought with monsters. I simply floated there. It had been even more apparent in your battle with Undyne.

“Urgh! You’re hopeless!” Her growled. “Here!”

Unexpectedly you felt a big tug in your soul, bordering on painful and it popped out of your chest.

“Hei!”

“Shut up!” He barked at you. “Look at the air between you and your soul. Look real close.”

You squinted your eyes at the air, unsure of what he wanted you to see. He turned the lights off and for a while you still didn’t know what he meant. And then, as thin as spider web thread, you saw several strands of light connecting the soul to you. They glowed slightly red, which looked odd against the grey and blue of your soul.

“What are these, and why are they red?” You asked.

“That’s the thing that links your body, mind and soul together and gives you strength to stay alive. Strangely enough the scientist called it Determination. I guess he thought the color reminded him of Chara’s soul. Every human has Determination in their soul and body, even if it isn’t their soul trait.”

You went to poke at one of the strings but Flowey stopped you.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Those are sensitive.”

“Oh, ok.”

“Monster’s have them too, but they are white, not red, and the moment they die, the threads are the first to disappear. Humans’ ones linger for a while. But once they die, the threads connecting to their soul get cut and there is no way to reattach them. It’s safe to say monsters would be the same if they lasted long enough to observe. Simply put: my soul is long gone.”

“Wait… you said that they are cut after the human dies. What if they get cut before?”

“I don’t know and I don’t think Smiley Trashbag would want you to find out.”

“Oh poo! Like I would do that!”

“Point is: my soul is gone and without a soul I can’t feel any love. No matter how much I want to or not I’m always indifferent… except for Chara.”

“Your parent’s too?”

He looked up at you in alarm but nodded anyway, albeit cautiously.

“How awful that the one person you can still feel anything towards to is the one that is gone…” You commented. “Do they know about you?” You asked.

By now you were pretty sure your theory was right.

“Who?”

“Toriel and Asgore!”

“WHAT!?”

“Sorry but… it’s pretty obvious once listening to what you were saying.”

“NO!” He shouted but then calmed down. “No. They don’t know about me. I don’t want them to.”

“Are you afraid they might reject you?” You asked. “You are their son, I doubt they-“

“No. They would do just the opposite of that.” He interrupted you. “And then they would get sad because I can’t love them back but would try to pretend they’re alright. I don’t want that.”

“Ok…” Poor kid. “Who knows about you, though?”

“Frisk. …well… Alphys and Sans know I don’t have a soul but neither I nor Frisk told them anything else.” His face twisted looking at you with a fierce scowl-y grin. “The others that saw us battle assumed I hid my soul from view, which a strong monster can do in battle, but it’s considered rude because weaker monsters and humans can't do it. So no, they don’t know anything. And you’d better not tell them either.”

That reminded you of Ruben and his secrets so much that, though you laughed, you couldn’t help but feel sadness too. You had once found out a secret Ruben had wanted to keep from Daniel You promised you would keep it to gain his trust. Because he still didn’t trust you he threatened you anyway. You had found it sort of adorable back then. Just as you found it now. By then you already knew Ruben wouldn’t hurt you… at least not physically.

“Stop laughing, you idiot!!!”

“My gawd. You are just too cute!” You grabbed his pot, noticing he had let your soul sink back into your chest. “Are you feeling better?”

“… yes.” He admitted grudgingly.

“Good! Up for a movie with me and Sans?”

“The Trashbag is still here?!”

“Too lazy to walk from place to place.” You explained.

“… makes sense.”

“So! What do you think of ParaNorman?”

“Never seen it.”

“Good. Lets go see it then!”

“…fine.”

With that you returned to the living room where, somehow, Sans had built a blanket fort in front of the TV along with taking care of popcorn and drinks. You thanked him and snuggled between him and Flowey. Now you could somewhat understand the animosity between the two. Being the overprotective brother, Sans wouldn’t want a soulless being anywhere near his brother.

The rest of the evening went fine. Flowey was dozing off by the time the movie ended, which was natural since a good cry had to power of tiring anyone out. You took him up to Frisk’s room and came back down to spend the rest of the evening waiting for the others to return while having Sans watch a few episodes of Rurounin Kenshin, also known as Samurai X. 

Sans didn’t seem to know what to think about your ex-crush at first but Kenshin grew on him. He also liked Kaoru’s kendo school saying of using the sword to defend, not kill. He didn’t seem to understand why so many people were obsessed with beating each other to prove their strength. Even going to the point of killing or risking their own lives.

You decided to have him read Monster Pulse once he finished reading Homestuck. Oh, all the organ puns he could come up with! And you would have to show Alphys and Undyne Namesake. You hoped they would ship the same characters as you. They would probably get a kick out of the SelvaXAlice pairing.

Eventually everyone else returned and Papyrus -the sweetheart that he was- even brought some candy for you. He didn’t save any for Sans since he suspected that Sans had stayed behind to be lazy- which he really wasn’t wrong about-. You decided you would share some with him anyway once Papyrus wasn’t watching.

That night when you went to bed you were feeling genuinely happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i explained how every soul has DT, introduced Flowey's past to Miranda and introduced past flames to Sans XP
> 
> next chapter is a semi-cryptic on (as in, you can tell who I'm talking about even before the name is mentioned, it's that obvious)


	34. Chapter 33: </3!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> \--!!'s POV--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Semi-cryptic chapter (AKA it's pretty obvious who it is about even before I say their name)

\--!!'s POV--

 

The first time they saw the darkness, as their body -or a very generic version of their body- glowed red, they had wondered if they had finally died. 

They remembered the excruciating pain, the blisters that covered their whole body and made it so that they couldn’t lie down comfortably, the excessive amount of drool their mouth created that almost drowned them in their sleep at times, the constant vomiting and dry heaving when there was nothing left to expel, the ulcers that would sometimes bleed but mostly caused constant pain.

They had wanted it to look like an accident, a sickness. If they took their lives they knew the others would forever blame themselves. It was bad enough their brother had to watch, knowing fully of what was going on, there was no need for their parents to suffer too.

However, that was all over now and they only hoped that they would know when it happened. When their brother took their soul. So they waited in the dark.

They waited.

They waited.

They had no idea how long they waited. They had no references whatsoever to the passage of time and they always got bored so easily. Chanting songs soon became old news. They decided on telling themselves stories but those ran out soon enough too. In the end, they wound up reciting what history and science lessons they knew. 

They were in the middle of telling themselves about how humans had arrived to America forty years ago when something changed.

They felt a sudden warmth, like being enveloped in a hug. The darkness hadn’t been cold but, once compared with that warmth, they couldn’t help but pray it wouldn’t go away. Their sight suddenly felt itchy and blurry. Before they could give into the urge of rubbing them, their eyes focused again.

In front of them laid a body. Their body.

They had never liked how they looked much. 

Sure, the reddish brown hair was normal enough, but that same color wasn’t one someone liked to be seen on someone's eyes and they had that very same color there too, not just the hair. Their skin had always been milky white, no matter how long they spent on the sun. They would get sunburns, but the color would soon vanish, no tan left behind. And then there had been the cheeks. 

Oh, how they hated the cheeks. Always red with blood vessels marring the surface. At times some bumps would appear too. Fortunately, those never stayed for long. In a way they preferred to have their whole face burnt by the sun. At least then no one could tell the difference in their skin as easily. 

They had been forced to stop purposefully getting sunburns on their face by their dad. 

‘You have to tough up to live in the world!’ he would say.

They never felt like they could. Not when every single person around mistreated them for their eye color and red cheeks. 

Their red cheeks earned them nicknames such as Apple Cheeks, Bullseye Face, Bitchslapped… Their reddish brown eyes earned them nicknames just as Witch, Demon Slut, Devil Born… It didn’t help that, at times, when the sun hit them at the right angle, their irises would almost look blood red.

No, they had never liked their body but it had at least lead them to find their perfect home. But now their body looked barely more than a mangled fleshy doll, blood and puss and other bodily fluids covering every inch of it. Death by buttercups wasn't pretty.

They knew their brother had taken their soul just then. And they felt when his body started to change now that it had absorbed their life essence. They had thought it would be uncomfortable and now knew their brother had feared as much. They felt their brother’s love for them. They couldn’t be happier over being reunited again. Never had they both felt closer to each other until then.

‘Siblings forever’.

That was how it had been supposed to be.

Them and their brother Asriel…

Asriel, now way taller than either of them was used to, picked up their body. It was an excuse in case someone saw them. A reason to go to the surface. And they had been found eventually. The guards had tried to stop them, but Asriel, now more powerful than ever, defeated them in battle and passed them by with ease. They were too scared to try and challenge him a second time, once they had tasted the true extent of his magic.

They felt their brother’s fascination as he saw stars for the first time ever. But that hadn’t been why they had left the cave. That hadn’t been why they, Chara, had sacrificed their life. They had come to collect souls and they knew just the ones to take.

But their brother second guessed their decision. It was a bit too late for that now! Chara took over.

They hadn’t even been aware they could. It was their Determination. It had won out over whatever held Asriel’s soul to their joint body. They advanced, all the while Asriel begged for a more pacific solution to their situation.

They should have listened to their brother. Or at least paused a long enough time to talk them into going through with their plan again. As it was, in almost full control of Asriel’s body -being that the one thing they couldn’t get Asriel to do was put their body down- they advanced towards the settlement they had lived in all their life when they were above ground.

…

Asriel had been stronger than they had thought. He now shared with them their Determination too. It had only been a matter of learning how to use it.

...

Chara felt their joint body disintegrating as Asriel, now in control again and severely wounded, dragged their body back to the underground. Asriel only had time to tell their father what had happened. Before their body gave up on them. Chara quickly took over, hoping their determined soul could do something, desperately trying to protect their brother’s frail soul.

It didn’t work. The last thing they saw was their red soul pop out of their joint body as they desperately tried to keep Asriel’s soul safe inside.

…

Darkness.

But this time was different.

It was still the very same darkness, but now Chara wasn’t alone there. Their brother’s soul was with them. They had brought their brother’s soul to the realm of death with them!

They didn’t know what that meant exactly, but at least they weren’t all alone there. They decided to search for their brother or their own soul. They searched and searched, to no avail. They gave up eventually. Perhaps if they waited long enough…

…

And then the twinges of pain started.

They had no idea what was happening but they felt very similar to that time they had been in a battle to train and had been hit accidentally with a magic attack on their soul. Father refused to train with them again after that time. Basically it felt like when they lost HP, but a bit… different?

At first the twinges where short lived and far apart. Whenever it was over they felt tired, like they had used the equivalent energy to sprint nonstop around the castle several times.

But then the twinges lasted longer and longer. The red color of their ‘darkness’ body became darker and darker, like the light was going out. 

It was when their body started to crack at their chest that they really became worried. Was their time running out? But they still hadn’t found their brother? They had been searching all over the Darkness! It couldn’t end like this! They wanted to apologize to him. He’d been right! They had been too hasty! Please not yet! Just a bit more! Please!

Just as they thought they were done for, the twinges stopped. But before they could recover from their cracked chest they felt something new. This time it was more of a permanent tug that tired them all the same but not to an extent that it was too much for them to bear. Their color was now maroon instead of their bright red from before… and the crack never went away.

But something new started to happen. 

Visions. 

Of the underground. 

Where they hallucinating over their past? 

No… It was something else. And if they had any money to bet they would had bet all of it on it having to do with whatever was draining their energy and had cracked their chest.

Slowly they came to realize what was going on. What had caused those twinges… what had happened to their soul. They hated it but could do nothing about it. Besides… **ḩ҉͏e̡̛** probably didn’t know he had hurt them. They were dead after all. They weren’t supposed to feel anything.

Chara didn’t blame **h̵i͟͝͝m҉̡̡͞** but certainly didn’t mourn when **ḩ҉͏e̡̛** met **h͘͢͠i͟͝s̴̢͠** demise. 

Now this was their life… or death in their case: Darkness and constant tugging most of the time with some glimpses into life in the underground.

That went on for a very long time. They even caught glimpses of **h̵i͟͝͝m҉̡̡͞** walking about in the darkness, looking for **h͘͢͠i͟͝s̴̢͠** missing pieces. They had even learned to see more than the darkness. They learned all there was to know about moving around in the darkness and would sometimes pester **h̵i͟͝͝m҉̡̡͞** to combat the loneliness but mostly stayed out of **h͘͢͠i͟͝s̴̢͠** way. 

Last thing they needed was for **h̵i͟͝͝m҉̡̡͞** to find out they had a monster soul with them there.

**H̶͢e̷҉** was desperate enough to try almost anything to return home, after all.

…

There was no telling what **ḩ҉͏e̡̛** would try to do with Asriel’s soul if **ḩ҉͏e̡̛** got **h͘͢͠i͟͝s̴̢͠** hand on it.

…

No, they couldn’t let **h̵i͟͝͝m҉̡̡͞** find out… **H̶͢e̷҉** would take Asriel and leave and they would be all alone. Chara didn’t want to be all alone there anymore…

…

And then something new. An image clearer than ever. It looked like the throne room but… with thousands of golden flowers there.

Chara found out they could access the image whenever they felt like it. but they also never felt like they were alone whenever they did it. 

They saw their father watering plants, they saw the captain of the royal guard give his post to the new captain, a fish monster named Undyne. They saw a yellow dinosaur lady named Alphys come every once in a while with vials of red and syringes. She seemed to be injecting whatever Chara was seeing from.

And then that image was gone, like it had become too self-aware.

Weird things started happening on the visions they got from the underground. Repetition. Over and over but sometimes with a new twist to it. A twist connected to a yellow flower… Aside from these, they also got glimpses of a dark place. Alphys was sometimes there too but it mostly had other monsters. Not regular monsters either. 

Monsters so disformed that the sight of them made them feel queasy.

And then, when they thought nothing more could surprise them, they were suddenly back!

…

Or so they had thought at first. It took them no time to realize they weren’t actually alive again but that they were watching from a new point of view. The point of view of a human child. A child with a red soul. A child named Frisk.

They were forced to watch as they traveled across the underground.

It was good to see something again, even if they couldn’t interact with it. For a while they felt better about their isolation and paranoia.

And then the kid accidentally killed someone.

…

Chara has never felt so weird before. A power that made them feel a chill go down their spine filled both Chara and Frisk. Chara hadn’t felt this much energy in ages! Not since their soul started to be constantly drained.

But what was best was that the crushed soul appeared right next to them! They cradled it as it shivered and trembled, ready to fall apart in the Darkness. Chara cradled it to their chest, next to Asriel’s.

By then they had gone half mad with loneliness and the fact that they were paranoid over **h̶̸i̸̢͝m̛͜** finding out that Asriel’s soul was there. And now there was this new soul right there, in the darkness? And if Frisk killed others? Perhaps even **h̢̧͏͢į̴̕s̛͞͝҉** family? Then **h̸̛͞͝e̛̛͝** wouldn’t need to take Asriel away, right? And they could see their family again…

They didn’t want to be alone anymore…

But that was wrong and they had to resist!

And then Frisk found out their time powers and began going through the underground over and over again until Chara was sick from it. They reminded Chara of all the reasons they hated humanity. This was all a game to them, wasn’t it?

At times they killed none, perfectly content in exploring secrets. Others they only harmed smaller monsters whose disappearance had no consequence and Chara had to hold themselves together to resist the rush of aliveness that they felt from it as thoughts of murder and reuniting filled their head. They always felt so gross for feeling so good with that rush of power and for hoping that, somehow, Frisk would reunite them with their family.

And then there were times Frisk killed the strong monsters. The energy Chara felt then… BUT NO! THEY COULDN’T ALLOW IT. CHARA DIDN’T WANT TO WISH ANYONE DEAD! THEY REALLY DIDN’T!!!

But their souls would appear, broken beyond repair, next to them and they would cradle them and they felt reminiscences of that monster’s life and felt they were no longer alone…

And then Frisk started killing mother…

Chara had been fine when Frisk killed Papyrus several times. They had grown to like the eccentric skeleton a lot, as well as his optimism but had dealt with his death rather well. Chara had been fine when Frisk killed Undyne several times. Chara had looked up to the hero of the underground. Specially since they had tried to be the hero once, a long time ago. Undyne was strong and full of honor, all things that Chara never got a chance to be. But Chara was fine when Undyne got killed.

Up until then father had only been killed by Flowey and the monster’s souls only appeared next to Chara if they were killed by Frisk themselves. Not seeing their father’s soul helped a lot with resisting temptation so they still didn’t have to worry about that.

…

But then Frisk decided to kill mother over… and over… and over… and over… and over… and over… and over… and over… and over… and over… and over… and over… and over…

Chara snapped. That had been the last straw. In a burst of determination Chara managed to cross the veil of Darkness to talk to Frisk. Frisk hadn’t known it was Chara they were talking to. They thought it was their own thoughts. Chara was disgusted. This child thought the underground was just a game and that they didn’t have any real consequences to what they were doing. 

But Chara knew. They knew all too well.

They convinced Frisk to kill everyone in the underground. They accepted oh so very easily… 

Soon all the souls in the ruins were floating next to Chara in the Darkness and they felt stronger than ever. But that wasn’t enough!

Frisk went on to kill all the monsters on their way to Snowdin. When they reached the town, it had been evacuated. That saddened Chara. They had always wanted to meet the townspeople…

Papyrus didn’t put up much of a fight… Chara and Frisk almost had a moment of clarity as he tried to reason with them… but their LV was too high by then and he was just in their way. Chara barely glanced at him when his broken soul appeared beside them, but did cradle him on their lap next to mother and Asriel.

Chara couldn’t help but feel bored as they went on to slaughter all of Waterfall. At least they had new friends to play with in the Darkness. Frisk had been about to kill MK when Undyne put herself in between. Undyne’s fighting this time was different than her usual style. Chara loved it. Undyne truly was the true hero of the underground. Even in her death she fought to stay alive and defend monsterkind! Chara really could never hope to become ever an eighth of what Undyne was…

Hotland was mostly empty save from some skeptics that didn’t want to leave. The fight with Mettaton was pretty painless. Chara never liked Mettaton much in the other timelines in which Frisk killed no one. His position in this timeline was no better. Fighting to protect the humans up above? Those scoundrels deserved no protection! Not after what they had done to them before tossing them down a hole thinking they were dead!

…

This was new…

Chara knew that Sans was always in the golden hallway, even when Papyrus was dead. But this was the first time that he actually wanted to fight… how curious…

But when the fight turned out to be unfair and Chara saw his full power, they couldn’t help but hate him. 

…

Especially when he revealed he knew about the timelines… 

If he was so powerful, if he knew what Frisk was capable of, why hadn’t he stopped them from killing his brother!?!?!?! What kind of older brother was he to refuse to save Papyrus! Heck, he didn’t even need to actually kill Frisk, he could just teleport away with Papyrus and would still keep his promise to their mother!

That comedian…

**He didn’t deserve the brother he had!**

…

Chara kept Sans’ soul as far away from his brother as possible once they eventually succeeded in killing him. It took a long time. Way too long.

Frisk proceeded

Chara should have been shocked to find out that Flowey was their brother all along but, when they learned that, all the LV was messing with their comprehension of the world. They were intoxicated with the power. Chara didn’t hesitate on killing Asriel. After all… Asriel never felt anything about killing their father before and did it so easily… At least now he could move on. And that wasn’t their Asriel, anyway. They had his soul right there with Mother’s, Undyne’s and Papyrus’. 

They didn’t get Father’s soul because, once again, Frisk hadn’t been the one to kill father…

…

Now they felt powerful enough.

They revealed themselves to Frisk and made them pay for ever treating Chara’s family as a game. They wiped them and the underground out of existence. Chara had no need for the monsters that had run away anyway. Those who stayed behind and fought were the ones they liked most, after all.

But Frisk had so much determination that they refused to stay erased. They came back begging over and over so Chara asked for the one thing they didn’t have. Frisk’s soul.

After they had given their soul to them, Chara used the soul to reset together with their own power to erase. 

Being again with no LV felt both refreshing and empty at the same time. For the first time since the genocide started Chara could actually feel surprise and shock at finding out who Flowey was. 

But the emptiness was so much… and they were so lonely… Whenever Chara had enough power to overrule Frisk’s soul, they would kill everyone again. They didn’t want to be alone in the Darkness. But then there were times when Frisk even managed to free everyone. But Chara didn’t want to be left behind so they killed everyone Frisk loved and forced them to reset.

That happened for a long, long time…

Frisk pleaded so many time for Chara to stop killing everyone. They had finally learned that one shouldn’t play with other people’s lives as if they amount to nothing. Too bad it took for Chara to be playing with theirs for them to find out.

This was why humans didn’t deserve to exist. They never learned without experiencing things first hand. Frisk was no different than anyone else.

They had fully intended on refusing Frisk forever.

…

And then they had made that promise…

They promised to let them share their soul and experience day to day life with them.

At first Chara had refused. How stupid did they thing they were? But then again… Chara could technically regain power over their soul anyway… right?

With that the killings stopped and Frisk kept their promise.

Chara still stayed mostly in the Darkness. It took a lot out of them both to have them constantly sharing their soul.

Meeting Miranda and Rajani had been odd but interesting. Them sharing a part of their soul was very similar to what Chara and Frisk were doing... perhaps leaning more to how Chara and Asriel had been when fused? And Chara could empathize with Rajani a lot. Now that was a woman that Chara could see themselves calling sister. 

Mother, adopt them already!

One thing was for sure, though.

Miranda made some awesome chocolate brownies.

Chara still haunted Sans’ dreams, though. 

The only way they could interact with any living being without using Frisk was via dreams. The dreams needed to have a serious emotional charge to the dreamer too, as well as have a connection with Chara themselves. 

That was why the only one they could really bother was Sans. But, in their mind, he deserved it for not protecting his brother properly!

…

Chara sensed someone getting close by in the Darkness. 

Fearing it would be **h҉̶̶̴̕į͢m̷͜** again, they quickly hid Asriel’s soul inside the crack on their chest.

A purple woman got close enough to glow across the dark matter that surrounded them and they eyed each other.

That was new…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They only had to wait a few hours ofr Asriel to take their soul but studies have proven that complete lack of stimulation (like, say... the void) can lead one to lose track of time and believe a lot more time has passed by than what really has.
> 
> btw the lack of tan on their part was inspired in my sister. she could get sun burnt all she wanted but when the burn was gone she was back to being milky white XD it frustrated her to no end.
> 
> Chara has Rosacea too, to make matter worse.
> 
> Frisk really didn't do THAT MUCh killing, also. but being stuck in the void made Chara sort of nutty and they can't help but relive those moments over an over again. I decided not to make either of them to be the true good or true evil. Many might rage at me for it but... a character that can't do no wrong is a bit boring anyway. And I know for a fact that Kids, especially the troubled kind, when given no good guidance by anyone, can turn out to be quite mean. Not saying that this is Frisks case. In fact Frisk thinks that no one remembers so they can stay right there forever. I'll eventually dive into Frisks psyche too.


	35. Chapter 34: The Shippening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You help a fish propose and make a theatrical release of a 'new show' ;P (wink wonk)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... some notes about the stuff in the chapter. (I'll write more in the end notes)
> 
> this is the meaning of a aquamarine stone (used in ring): http://meanings.crystalsandjewelry.com/aquamarine/  
> and this is the ring i decided to have Undyne gift Alphys with: https://www.diamondere.com/d/product/3664-3618-engagement-rings-vintage-dayna/sterling-silver/aquamarine/i-diamond
> 
> I had fun writing this chapter and it was also a way to develop more some of the characters, especially Papyrus (you'll see why)

This wasn’t the first time you kept a monumental secret. Perhaps you should be riddled with insecurities, guilt and along that line… but fact was you weren’t. You hadn’t always been the best secret keeper, that much was true. And you hated lying and keeping things secret. But you had done it in the past several times.

You’d hid the fact that you had Dissociative Identity Disorder from all the world. You’d kept quiet about Daniel’s potentially murder-y other personality when you should have found him some psychiatric help, considering you were now pretty sure he was nothing but a big fat liar and compulsive lying was a serious condition. When you found out a friend of yours was gay you kept quiet for him too because of his family.

Honestly most secrets you kept were for others and for good reasons. The only selfish secret you ever kept was your Dissociative Identity Disorder. But then again was it really selfish if it ensured that Rajani was kept safe?

Fact was that keeping Flowey’s secret didn’t bother you much. Sure, sometimes you caught yourself feeling sorry for his parents, so close to one of their children without knowing. But, in all truth, the only one getting hurt as things were right now was Flowey himself.

Both Asgore and Toriel seemed to be finally getting over their children’s deaths and whatever else that had put a wedge between them for so long. Toriel had mentioned that Asgore declared war on humanity right after they died but that was all you knew. You were pretty sure that wasn’t all of it but felt it wasn’t right of you to demand answers. You assumed a significant number of humans must have died. There are certain kinds of grieving that were prone to irrationality and violence. You would know. Thus, you couldn’t exactly judge him for it. Perhaps in times gone by, when everything was so certain and either black or white, you would have, but not now.

The fact still remained. The two monsters where finally letting go of their pain and going into acceptance. Letting them know one of their children was still here, just without a soul, would surely bring all their progress down. You supposed that was one of the reasons Flowey didn’t want them to know he was Asriel.

The other one was due to his sense of inadequacy. You sensed that he felt somewhat worthless and a burden to his parents since he couldn’t feel love. Well… aside from Chara, that is. And that was what was strange about it.

Why could he still feel love for Chara?

That was what was strangest thing about the whole ordeal.

Was it because they were the only person he had failed to reconnect with in any format and, thus, had failed to realize he lost his feeling of love towards them, which lead to him to have fake expectations towards his sibling?

But that didn’t really seem likely. A sociopath couldn’t fake the amount of feeling you had seen from him. Not without doing it on purpose. No, those feelings had to be real!

Which lead to her second conclusion that it had to be somehow connected with their fusion, as you decided to call it.

That would make sense, since technically Chara’s soul was somehow fused with his and perhaps that connection had remained somehow. The problem was: didn’t that meant he would still have to have a soul? And if he indeed still had a soul why wasn’t he feeling anything else?

And Chara couldn’t be mind-melded with him since it would be obvious for Flowey himself… wouldn’t it?”

In short it became too mind boggling for even you to continue thinking about it.

You did finally forgive Rajani, though. Especially after Flowey revealed to you she reminded him so much of Chara. Even if Rajani wasn’t the greatest of friends or family for most people, you knew you would miss her so much if she was gone. Seeing Flowey grieve reminded you that, no matter what, there is always a way for you to lose someone. Even if that someone lives on your soul and mind. It reminded you that you never knew when something that would take your loved ones away would happen and that remaining bitter about their shenanigans until then was a huge waste of time. You should be cherishing them instead.

So, Rajani was forgiven.

Things were going fine. It took you one day to finish your portion of candies that Papyrus had brought you. Sans had ended up not wanting any so you had it all to yourself. You did end up getting him a bottle of prime ketchup to make it up to him and his eyes did that star shape thing you had only seen him do once before, when you understood his double pun about justice. It was immensely adorable. You felt like scooping him up and smothering the shit out of him in hugs.

Of course, that would be a stupid thing to do!

Instead you settled for rubbing his head with a smile. 

…

Still a bit creepy but, well… you were never a normal person so whatevs.

You still wondered what he meant with you having told him his eyes looked like stars, though? When had you said that? As far as you knew it was practically impossible for you to make such a remark while being in your right mind. Heck you were tipsy when you stated it for, apparently, the second time around.

The thought that you must have brazenly told him his eyes looked like two wonderfully shiny starts twice made you feel weird uncomfortable feelings.

You… preferred to not think about the whole debacle. 

Five days after Halloween, when you had finally managed to achieve complete peace with yourself and your frantic mind, Undyne burst into the mansion.

Normally you wouldn’t bat an eye at such over the top antics since you had grown used to them, but this time her next few words caught everyone’s attentions quickly.

“I JUST BOUGHT THE PERFECT HOUSE!!!” She said waving a paper with one of her flailing arms.

“Congrats.” Was your automatic response.

_They are going to leave…_

_**You knew this day was coming, Mir. You were the one who helped Undyne get a job to pay for the house.** _

_I know but… it’s so sudden…_

_**You know that’s not true.** _

_… I know…_

_**You can always pay them a visit, you know? Even after you return to the streets I doubt they would mind.** _

_…_

You decided to analyze your feelings better at a later time. Right now you needed to be happy for her. 

_**Look on the bright side. At least now they won’t be constantly bothering you with their shipping.** _

It was true. It the past five days they had done nothing but trying to pit you against one of the bonebros in what could only be described as a stereotypical shoujo anime scenarios.

It started by trying to convince you to wear a skirt. A really short one that was pretty similar to school uniform one in style, but that had the length the same as the width of a belt. They were pretty insistent and even dressed in uniforms themselves to convince you. When you had finally given in they waited until one of the bros, in this case Papyrus, to pass by and then tripped you. As expected the skirt hiked up over your buttocks. They hadn’t predicted for you to wear gym shorts underneath, as you always did whenever you wore a skirt too short for comfort -meaning anything above the knees-.

They made a hasty excuse and dashed off apologizing for ‘accidentally’ tripping you.

After reassuring Papyrus that you were ok you dressed your regular clothes again.

After that they had tried the ‘accidentally walking in on girl bathing’ trick. This time their target was Sans. It only half worked.

They told Sans you were done using the bathroom and that he could go next. He walked in just as you were unbuttoning your shirt. Thank god you always waited until the water was warm before undressing to step inside the shower. Sans did get a good glance at the black lacy number you were wearing. 

You didn’t always wear the lacy bras but somehow you found yourself short on the more comfortable ones. You were beginning to suspect that the dinofish duo had something to do with that too.

Sans’ face became bluer than you had ever seen and he quietly closed the door with the most frozen expression. Once he was outside with the door fully closed you groaned and had no doubts that he decided to hide himself in his bedroom. 

Your next few interactions with him were awkward to say the least.

Next, they tried the ‘accidental kiss’ route.

That one was, admittedly, a very complex trap and even Papyrus was surprised once he realized what was going on. It still failed, thankfully. You definitely didn’t think of Papyrus that way.

Papyrus did scold them two and from that incident forward they didn’t try to rope him into their little games. Well… not without being very discreet about it. Sans, however… 

You could hardly look him in the eyes after all the things they did... mostly because he was avoiding yours. Thank god most of them failed but it was enough to get you both to feel very awkward around each other. And definitely not the kind of awkward they were aiming for, that’s for sure. It went to the point you no longer even so much as talked anymore since anytime you two were together it was guaranteed those two were up to no good. You couldn’t even turn corners in the hallway without them trying to get you to bump into Sans!

…and did you hear them discussing giving Sans amnesia so that you’d nurse him to health or trying to plan how to get Toriel or Asgore to prepare the typical plot point of arranged marriage? You seriously hoped you misheard them.

You sigh. They’d been very desperate lately…

 _This is why!_ You suddenly understood.

_**What? Wait… Oh! It’s because they knew they were leaving? Well damn! That is so stupid.** _

_I’m going to ask._

“Undyne… did you know you were getting the house before today?” You ask.

“HELL YEAH! Me and Alphie have been keeping an eye on it for some time and now that we have enough money I finally bought it. I thought it was going to get sold before we got the chance to bid on it for sure! Alphie was right about the whole jinx thing. It worked like a charm!”

“Jinx?”

“Yeah, you know. Not telling anyone you’re doing something before you do in case it brings bad luck?”

“Oh!”

“Can’t wait for my girl to get home. She doesn’t know I took care of the final details in secret!”

“THIS IS TRULY GREAT NEWS!” Papyrus interrupted.

“Now I just need to come up with the greatest plan ever!”

“Plan?”

“I’m going to propose!”

You blinked.

“O… M… G…! That is SO ADORABLE!” You said and Rajani agreed. “How are you going to do it? The traditional down on one knee type of proposal or something more elaborate and thoughtful?” You ask.

“Well… she always did like the ceremonies she saw in anime and such so I suppose that a modern American style of proposal and wedding might be best… But I do like some of the traditional stuff, to be honest.”

“What’s the traditional proposal and wedding like for monsters?” You ask, feeling curious.

“Well there was a lot of different things you could opt to do but the most common ones were offering gifts to the mate’s mother or father and ask their hand in marriage with their blessing; showing one’s strength was also a good idea since it showed you could protect the family; playing traditional love songs… There is also the blanket one but that’s too traditional for now a days I guess.”

“Blanket?”

“Yeah like: I sit by where Alphys is likely to pass by wrapped in a blanket and, when she appears I open the blanket in invitation for her to walk in. If she does then she basically accepted marriage. But now-a-days that tradition has lost its meaning. It’s still somehow romantic but not to that extent.”

“Oh! That’s true.”

“I’m also already constantly showing off my strength so it’s not the best way to go about it either. It also has lost most of its meaning too. And Alphys doesn’t have any parents. The serenade might be a good idea but it seems too little. I want to shower her with my love!”

“Are those all the traditional ones?”

“I dunno. There were several as far as I know. I used to like the ‘gifting the parents’ one when I was younger. It’s honorful.” Undyne admitted.

“I don’t think that word exists, Undyne…”

“IT DOES NOW!”

“WHAT ABOUT THE ‘LOVE POTION’ ONE?” Papyrus asked.

“…Love potion?...”

“IT’S NOT ACTUALLY A LOVE POTION IN THE SENSE YOU HUMANS SEEM TO THINK OF IT.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Yeah, punk! I wanna know all about that! I’ve never heard of it.” Undyne agreed.

“WELL… I DON’T REMEMBER MUCH ABOUT MY PARENTS, BUT I DO HAVE A MEMORY OF MOTHER SHOWING ME THE ONE SHE HAD GIVEN FATHER. I STILL HAVE IT AS A KEEP SAKE BUT IT NO LONGER… I’LL SHOW YOU! COME WITH ME!”

Papyrus lead you two to his room and searched around in his drawers. He then took out a beaten looking wood box with a rusty iron clasp. He sat in his bed with the box in his lap and you and Undyne gathered around him.

“DON’T TELL BROTHER I HAVE IT. SANS DOESN’T LIKE TO TALK ABOUT OUR PARENTS MUCH. I THINK THEY MIGHT HAVE DIED HORRIBLY.”

“You… think?” You asked. 

Undyne merely nodded, though. But then again, she had been friends with him a far longer than you had so she probably knew all that.

“I DON’T REMEMBER THEM MUCH. JUST A FEW GLIMPSES, WHICH IS ODD BECAUSE I BELIEVE I WAS OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THEM. MOTHER’S MEMORY SEEMS CLEARER, THOUGH IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE OTHER WAY AROUND. I THINK IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN REALLY BAD WHEN THEY DIED. SANS IS ONLY SECRETIVE WHEN SOMETHING IS BAD.” Papyrus commented.

“Oh! I’m sorry.”

“DON’T BE. I’M QUITE ALRIGHT! I JUST WISH I COULD REMEMBER MORE. OR THAT SANS WOULD TALK TO ME!”

“Can you show us the love potion thingy?” Undyne asked feeling very much impatient.

“OH! OF COURSE!”

Papyrus opened the box and took out what seemed like a glass bottle with white dust within. It had a cord of sorts tied around the neck of the bottle with a rose quartz and a bone pendants and making a loop to probably hang around the neck. The glass was old and seemed to be very crudely made like something from time gone by.

“MOTHER TOLD ME THAT FATHER NEVER HAD INITIATIVE ASIDE FROM HIS JOB… THOUGH I CAN’T SEEM TO REMEMBER WHAT HE DID. SO, SHE KNEW SHE HAD TO TAKE THE INITIATIVE EVEN IF AT THE TIME, WITH THE WAYS THINGS WERE SUPPOSED TO GO, HE WAS THE ONE WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO DO IT, BEING FROM A HIGHER SOCIAL STATUS. SO SHE MADE THIS GLASS BOTTLE WITH A FIRE WEILDING FRIEND OF HERS AND PUT HER MAGIC INSIDE. WHEN SHE WAS STILL ALIVE IT USED TO GLOW RED AND BE LIQUID-LOOKING… NOW IT’S JUST DUST, OF COURSE. MOTHER WAS ALWAYS COMPLAINING THAT FATHER ALWAYS FORGOT THIS AT HOME INSTEAD OF TAKING IT WITH HIM.”

“Do those objects have meanings?” You ask, pointing at the stone and bone.

“I BELIEVE SO. THE BONE MUST HAVE BEEN BECAUSE SHE WAS A SKELETON, THOUGH I’M NOT SURE. IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN BECAUSE FATHER WAS A SKELETON. THEY WERE BOTH SKELETONS SO I DON’T KNOW WHO IT STOOD FOR BUT IT WAS ONE OF THEM. I’M SURE THE PINK STONE HAD A MEANING TO IT, THOUGH I’M NOT SURE WHAT.”

“It was to be worn at the neck, right?” Undyne asked.

“YES.” Papyrus placed the necklace back in the wooden box and closed it. “IT MEANT THAT SHE WOULD ALWAYS BE WITH HIM NO MATTER WHAT. I SUPPOSE THAT THIS DUST MEANS THAT EVEN IN DEATH SHE WOULD BE WITH HIM.”

“That is so romantic. And so sad, knowing they are gone.” You commented.

“Papyrus! Thank you for showing it to me, punk! I think I’m going to go with this idea!” Undyne dashed off somewhere, probably to get everything ready.

Papyrus placed the box back in the drawer. He did seem a bit sad.

“Want to talk about it?” You asked.

“… YES. I BELIEVE I WILL!” He said, sitting beside you once more. “IT’S FRUSTRATING HAVING THESE BITS AND PIECES OF MEMORIES ABOUT THEM BUT NEVER ACTUALLY MANAGING TO REMBEMBER THEM. SANS REFUSES TO TALK ABOUT IT AND I UNDERSTAND THAT SOMETHING BAD MUST HAVE HAPPENED. BUT STILL. THEY WERE MY PARENTS TOO! I WANT TO REMEMBER ABOUT THEM AND KNOW MORE BUT HE WONT HELP ME.”

You gave the tall skeleton a side hug as he vented his frustrations.

“ALL I REALLY KNOW IS THAT MOM LOVED US A LOT AND FATHER USED TO BE VERY CARING. THEN MOTHER WAS GONE AND FATHER STARTED SPENDING WAY TOO MUCH TIME AT WORK. AND THEN SUDDENLY FATHER WAS GONE TOO AND SANS MOVED OUR HOME TO SNOWDIN AND RAISED ME ALL ALONE!”

“That’s hard, man!” Rajani commented via you, feeling concerned about the usually cheerful skeleton -as much as she would like to deny-.

“I JUST WISHED HE WOULD TALK TO ME INSTEAD OF KEEPING QUIET ABOUT EVERYTHING! I KNOW HE IS HIDING A LOT OF THINGS FROM ME! AM I NOT TRUSTWORTHY ENOUGH?”

“I’m sure it’s not that, Papy.” You said hugging him harder. “I think he just wants to protect you from everything bad in the world. He just doesn’t realize that the world is too big for him to be able to protect you from every single bad thing out there. And he doesn’t want to lose the cheerful adorable brother he has. The world could harden a lot of people. It hardened me, after all. I think he just doesn’t want to lose what you two have together.”

“… YOU ARE PROBABLY RIGHT.” Papyrus admitted grudgingly.

“It doesn’t mean that you have to be ok with everything. You are entitled to feel frustrated and sad and rebellious all you want. You are a grown skeleton, after all.” Rajani commented with him. “Just remember that he doesn’t actually mean to hurt you with his actions. But you can always pay him back with a little playful revenge or two to remind him you aren’t a child anymore.” You added and then winked.

“THANK YOU, MIRANDA AND RAJANI! YOU ARE ALWAYS SUCH GOOD LISTENERS!” He said hugging you back.

“You’re welcome.” You replied and Rajani remained silent.

You both left Papyrus’ room, only to see a blue and red blur flash by. 

“Undyne?” You asked the tall and sweet skeleton

“YES.”

You went down the stairs to see her scrolling on her computer and writing something down. Before you could ask her about anything she stood up and rushed back upstairs.

Curious as you were you peek to the tabs she left open. There was an engagement ring site, one with gem and stone meanings and one about how to make glass. You supposed she was going both routes.

“Ok, gotta go, bye!” Undyne said as she came down the stairs, now with her jacket on, as well as a practical bag with the strap coming across her torso.

“UNDYNE! WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?” Papyrus tried to ask.

“Underground! Gonna go borrow your brother for a sec, ok?” And with that she was gone.

You and Papyrus exchanged a glance and shrugged. 

Since he was free that day you decided to show him something not as punny as Homestuck. You chose two series. Avatar and Steven Universe. You started by the classics with Avatar and left Steven for another time.

Papyrus seemed to enjoy the show and, after they arrived, Frisk, MK and Flowey also seemed to become addicted to it, too.

Undyne was away for so long that you actually started getting worried. Toriel had already arrived and started on dinner and Asgore had even arrived sooner than expected and was chatting with her when Undyne and a very tired looking Sans popped up in the living room.

“WELCOME BACK, UNDYNE! HELLO BROTHER!”

“Hei! Do you know if Toriel is home yet?” 

“Toriel?”

“Yes! I need some fire magic!” Undyne explained.

“Oh! She is, but she’s busy. You might want to ask Asgore, though. He is in the kitchen.” You told her and she dashed off.

Feeling curious you decided to follow her and it seemed everyone else but the kids had the same idea too.

“KING ASGORE! I NEED YOU TO MAKE ME A GLASS BOTTLE!” She demands pulling out a flask with sand and two smaller ones, one with brick red soil and the other with dark blue soil. “About this big!” She demonstrated with her fingers indicating the size.

“Of course! May I ask why the sudden request, Undyne?” He asked.

“I’m making the love potion thingy for Alphys!”

“Love po-? Oh! It’s been so long since I’ve heard of those. It was actually called something else. The humans back before the barrier was made were the ones that called them love potions. The name sort of stuck. They… did some questionable things.” Asgore commented.

“questionable?” Sans asked tiredly.

“The human mages, shamans I think they were called. Or was it cree? I’m not quite sure. But they would sometimes steal these from couples. Apparently when humans drink the magic they become overwhelmed by the givers’ feelings of love for their partner.

“Ew! They drunk it!?” Udyne exclaimed.

“Indeed.” Toriel confirmed.

Asgore lit up his left palm in green flames. With his other hand, he scooped up some sand and you watched it slowly melt. He then sprinkled in some blue soil and mixed it.

“From Waterfall, I assume.” He commented and you couldn’t help but feel confused.

“Waterfall? What waterfall?”

“it’s one of the areas underground. It was very wet and had several waterfalls.”

“Oh”

“It’s where I lived. Alphys used to live there too. And it’s where I met her!” Undyne said.

“That’s so sweet and sentimental.” You commented. “And the other flask?” You asked as you saw Asgore add more sand and some of the reddish soil.

“Hotland. It’s where she started living after she became the Royal Scientist. We spend a lot of time together there. She made me a water cooler just so that I could have a drink on my way to visit her. Hotland was too hot for me.” Undyne told you.

“This is so sweet I’m going to get diabetes!” You said ‘squee’ing.

“Dia-what now?”

“Oh, it’s a disease people can get from eating too much sugar. Some are born with it though. It can either make anyone incapable of properly digesting sugar, or digesting it way too fast.”

“You humans are weird…” Undyne commented.

“Is this shape alright, young one?” Asgore asked Undyne.

The glass was still incandescent from heat but is was clearly holding a bottle shape. Asgore had tried to make the body of the bottle resemble a monster soul. It did, in a way, but the glass wasn’t curving smoothly, having bumps and dips in the surface.

“It’s PERFECT!!!” Undyne made grabby hands for it but Asgore stopped her, cooling the glass first.

Once the heat was gone you saw that most of the glass was transparent with a few places that had bits of soil trapped in the glass that still looked artistic. You wondered if it made the glass frailer. Undyne carefully cradled the bottle and inspected it meticulously.

“Awsome! Hei, Asgore. How do you put magic here anyway?”

“You hadn’t thought of that yet, my friend?” Toriel asked.

“I figured I’d just wing it.”

Both the royal monsters chuckled at her words.

“This isn’t something you can just wing, Undyne.” Asgore said. “When you pour your magic into that bottle you can’t do it like you use your magic to attack. You have to concentrate only on your feelings for your intended mate.”

“Oh, ok!” Undyne said. “How do I know if I’m doing it right, though?”

Asgore went on to explain to her how to properly manipulate her magic. You were surprised that such a love filled magic didn’t need for the soul to be out for her to do it. In the end the flask was filled with a yellow liquid-like substance and Asgore sealed it with more molten glass. This time he was even more careful with it so that not a bit of it fell into the bottle.

As soon as that was done Undyne took out a tiny spear pendant that seemed to be carved out of a glowing stone as well as a gem pendant that you were pretty sure was made out of aquamarine.

“Is that stone spear radioactive or something?” You ask feeling a bit scared.

Most monsters just give you a blank look as Sans snorts at your assumption.

“What?” You ask becoming red at your perceived faux du pas. “It’s a legitimate question!”

“it’s not radioactive. that comes from the underground. there was so much magic in the underground that some gems absorbed it and started glowing. the glow became permanent after some time.” Sans explained.

“Well that’s cooler!... and safer, I assume.”

“It is very safe, my child. I do not know what is ‘radioactive’ but I assume by your words that it’s dangerous. Is it?”

“Some time back, scientists discovered nuclear energy. It’s one of the cleanest energy sources in the sense that it doesn’t pollute the Earth. It has the down side that, while it doesn’t pollute, if a nuclear central is compromised, the radiation from the nuclear waste will spill to the surrounding places and cause mutations and cancer. It's deadlier the bigger the amount of radiation.”

“Oh! That does sound very concerning.” Toriel commented.

“It is. There’s more but first we should focus on Undyne’s engagement potion thingy.” You said not wanting to interrupt the happy times with hard, sad and concerning facts.

Undyne inserted the spear, which had a loop looking thing in the other end of the handle, on the leather-like string she had picked. She then took hold of the aquamarine pendant.

“WHAT SORT OF STONE IS THAT AND WHAT’S ITS MEANING?” Papyrus asked with curiosity shining in his sockets.

“It’s an aquamarine. It’s supposed to stand for courage and fortitude but also for intellect, which is perfect since it stands for both me and Alphys, and is supposed to bring inner peace, hope and self-love which I think it’s a wonderful concept for our marriage!” Undyne explained as she busied herself with tying the string.

“You sound like you gave it a lot of thought.” You comment.

“I’ve already known it’s meaning for some time. I did buy her a human engagement ring too, some time ago.” She finished tying and pulled out a box featuring a sterling silver ring with a light blue oval aquamarine stone in it. The ring looked rather sturdy instead of delicate, which would be good since Alphys did need to work in the lab with chemicals and other things of the sort. Looking closer there were diamonds on each side of the ring but they clearly weren’t the focus.

“It’s beautiful!” You commented at the same time as Toriel.

Papyrus and Asgore also complimented the ring but Sans was nodding off to sleep.

You all heard the door unlocking and there was only one person it could be.

“Distract her for a bit!” Undyne demanded and rushed off upstairs.

Asgore seemed very reluctant on leaving the kitchen and you understood that he wanted some more time to talk to Toriel.

“Let’s go, bonebuddies. Nothing is better at distracting Alphys than shipping us together.” You commented grabbing both of their arms.

Sans seemed to visibly panic at your words, now completely awake, while Papyrus seemed a bit annoyed.

“I STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY THEY THINK WE WOULD BE MORE THAN FRIENDS. WE HAVEN’T EVEN GONE ON DATES OR ANYTHING!” Papyrus said. “IT’S NOT THAT YOU AREN’T GREAT, SKINNY HUMAN, BUT I DO NOT FEEL THAT WAY ABOUT YOU!

“It’s ok, I’m not in love with you either. You are like the little brother I never had.” You replied back. “And me and Sans are just friends!” 

“THEY ARE ‘SHIPPING’ YOU WITH MY BROTHER TOO!?” Papyrus asked, surprised as Sans hid his head inside the hood of his jacket. “WHY?” 

“No idea. I guess as plan B?” You suggested. 

“WELL, DO NOT WORRY. I’M SURE THAT SANS HOLDS NO SUCH FEELINGS FOR YOU EITHER, SKINNY HUMAN.” Papyrus assured you. 

_**Outch, if you liked the bonehead this one would have hurt. Damn, Papyrus is brutal.**_

_Thank god I don’t, then._

_**As you have assured me so many times before…**_

You didn’t understand Rajani’s last statement so you chose to ignore it. 

“It’s ok. Let’s go distract our dinofriend.” 

You saw Alphys staring to climb the stairs as you left the kitchen so you rushed to interrupt her. 

“Hei Alphys! How is my soulbot going?” You ask her in a rush. 

“O-oh! It’s alm-m-most done! It’ll b-be ready b-by t-t-tomorrow.” She said. 

“And are you sure this time that only Rajani will be heard?” You ask as she was about to turn to the stairs again. 

“Y-yes. I’m pretty s-s-sure all the g-glitches are s-s-solved now.” She told you and started to turn to the stairs again. 

“It really won’t say out loud everything she is thinking, right?” You ask starting to feel desperate. 

“N-no, it won’t. I c-c-calibrated the s-s-sensitivity of t-the antenna. It s-s-should be fine.” and She turned to the stairs again. 

_**Goddammit woman! Do you really like stairs that much!?**_

_Darts! Time to play on her shipper heart!_

You hugged Papyrus and looked at him with half lidded eyes. You even lifted one of your feet in the typical romantic hug in movies. 

“But about what we were talking about earlier…” You said and winked at Papyrus with the eye that she couldn’t see from her point of view. “Thank you for being so candid about your feelings with me. I really appreciate it.” 

Papyrus seemed to catch onto what you were doing and promptly twirled you about in the typical Papyrus like fashion, except that this time it ended in a dip. Sans was looking at you two as if you were crazy. 

“ OF COURSE, SKINNY HUMAN. AND I MUST THANK YOU FOR ALWAYS PUTTING UP WITH MY FOOLISH RAMBLINGS FOR, AS GREAT AS I AM, MY FEELINGS CAN STILL OVERWHELM ME.” 

It worked. Alphys stood there blushing at the scene, but interested enough so as not to go away. Papyrus let you up and, with and exchange of a look you both decided that Sans, who was by now trying to edge away, would be your next victim. You could see revenge on Papyrus’ eye sockets. 

You quickly grasped Sans’ sleeve and tugged him towards you, hugging him once he was close enough. 

“What’s wrong, Sans. Are you still worried about having seen me in a compromising situation a few days back? For sure you must know I’ve forgiven you.” You tell him with a purr in your voice just for the sake of embarrassing him. 

As expected he flushed the very same shade of blue from before. 

“i-i-i” He gulped, seemingly coming to grips with the fact that you were acting. “i know.” 

_**It seems he can’t stand to say anything more than that. I almost feel sorry for him.** _

_He stuttered! That’s adorable!_

“But you have been avoiding me so much. I’ve been feeling so lonely, Sans.” You said pouting like a champ. “We used to talk so much together… at night… when everyone was asleep…” 

The blue on Sans’s face became even more saturated and he lost his ability to speak, even though he knew you were acting. 

You heard the distinct squeak from Alphys’ direction that resembled the whistling of a boiling kettle of tea. 

“ THERE’S NO NEED TO FEEL LONELY ANYMORE, SKINNY HUMAN. I TOO SHALL KEEP YOU COMPANY AT NIGHT!” Papyrus claimed hugging you from behind as you continued to hug Sans. “I’M SURE THAT SANS WILL EVENTUALLY JOIN OUR CONVERSATIONS SOON, THOUGH I WORRY IF THAT MUCH STIMULATION BEFORE BED MIGHT KEEP YOU FROM SLEEPING AT ALL.” 

_**WAS THAT A MOTHERFUCKIN’ DOUBLE ENTENDRE!!!??? Boy, Paps got game after all!** _

_I always suspected he wasn’t as innocent as everyone around seems to think._

“Oh, I’m sure I can take on both of you easily.” Rajani commented for you since you didn’t feel comfortable doing double entendres with someone you saw as your little brother. 

You distinctly heard something pop and looked to Alphys only to see her with the equivalent of a bloody nose. Except that the blood was yellow and made of magic and had lot of electric sparks were coming out of it. Had she seriously had an anime style nose bleed!? _**Oh my!**_

You looked at Sans. If Alphys, a hardcore anime nerd, was brought down from such a lighthearted exchange, you could only imagine Sans’ reaction. 

… 

You never could have imagined that his whole skull could turn blue. It was interesting. He was also looking towards Papyrus in disbelief, like the sweet cinnamon roll had just bitchslapped him hard. It was priceless. 

“Oh my god, your face!” You laughed, finally letting him go. 

“ WHAT’S THE MATTER, BROTHER? SURELY YOU MUST KNOW THE ART OF THE DOUBLE ENTENDRE! IT IS A FORM OF WORD PLAY, AFTER ALL!” Papyrus commented with an innocent looking grin and eyes full of mischief. 

“paps… how do you even know that expression?” Sans finally asked, clearly relieved that you had let go of him. 

“WHICH ONE? THE STIMULATION ONE? SURELY YOU AREN’T COMPLETELY UNAWARE OF WHAT THAT MEANS, RIGHT?” Papyrus purposefully misunderstood what Sans meant. “IT WOULD BE PRETTY SAD IF YOU WERE.” 

Sans made a strangled sound with his nonexistent throat as you giggled. 

You started hearing a lot of sound coming from upstairs, meaning that Undyne was coming back. 

You bowed towards Alphys. 

“You have just watched our latest theatrical release of ‘How to Fluster a Skeleton’. We thank you for your patience and I advise you to make way for Undyne, who is coming down the stairs right now.” 

“W-what!?” Alphys snapped out of her trance, looked up the stairs and, whatever she saw, she quickly took a few steps back. 

… 

And Undyne walked into the hallway with a grand piano and a stool balancing on her back like it was nothing! 

WFT man!? 

She carefully put the piano down and sat on the stool. Undyne proceeded to play a song you remembered from Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. It was a song that Alphys had told you she loved because it represented perfectly the feelings Mew Mew had for the male lead. Undyne sang the Japanese song to completion. Her voice was a bit too gruff for the song as her fingers played masterfully but Alphys seemed to love it anyway. 

As soon as the song was over Undyne walked around the piano and plopped down on her knee. 

“Alphys. For a long time I’m been thinking of doing this when we finally bought a house. And now, we have a house!” She pulled out the papers she had been waving earlier and handing them to Alphys. 

“O-oh my g-god!” Was all that Alphys could say as she read the document in her hands. 

“I want to make this house our home but, even more than that, I want to make you my family.” Undyne pulled out both the necklace and the box and held them both out to the dinosaur woman. “Alphys, will you became my mate and marry me?” 

Alphys stood there frozen for a bit, tears welling up in her eyes. 

“YES!!” She finally replied. “Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!” 

You smiled as you saw the heartfelt moment unrolling in front of you. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... we can pretty much guess why he only has feelings for Chara now (considering the previous chapter)
> 
> as for monsters marriage traditions... they were locked underground before the Europeans reached America so the only traditions they were privy with was Native American, but there aren't many things I could use. One of the things they did was the man would get himself a love potion, which he was supposed to drink. I changed it around to be something derived from monsters bottling their magic for their loved ones (and them some 'shamans' stealing them and selling them as love potions. Instead of drinking it, the monster preparing it gives it to their partner, who is supposed to keep it on constantly (which didn't always happen but the keeping it was more of a safety insurance and a demonstration of ones love than anything else).
> 
> We also went a bit deeper into Paps and Sans past for this one and we will return there again at a later chapter.
> 
> Also, I forgot to mention last week when I posted the other chapter so I'm doing it now: me AngelaEvil and RTNightmare have decided to write oneshots per request.: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11056452/chapters/24651882  
> Feel free to request any of us to write anything you want but keep in mind that our own personal fics take precedence. the next request in almost out. It only requires minor editing and it'll be done. (I'm talking to you UltimateGamer101 ;] *wink wonk).
> 
> I also decided to make an Undertale AU work skins (I tried to make it public but no such luck so I'll have to copy the codes into the file I wrote for you all to use it). see if you like them and if you have suggestions for other AUs you might want me to add to the list and it you ant me to alter any of the existent ones.
> 
> with this said. have a nice weekend and see you next friday!


	36. Chapter 35: If You Had an ‘Inkling’ of What I’m Thinking…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toriel used to be the pre-colonial version of a punk (thank zarla on deviant art for that idea) and Miranda tries to be mischievous for a day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> question: don't you just hate when you finish taking a bath or a shower and step out of the tub/stall only to feel cold? (especially in winter un an apartment that has no central heating 'cause you poor)
> 
> also here's a link to zarla's comics with punky Toriel:  
> Comic 1 - http://zarla.deviantart.com/art/Got-an-appointment-to-shove-you-into-a-locker-601673177  
> Comic 2 - http://zarla.deviantart.com/art/Next-I-m-gonna-go-drink-a-beer-656336924

To say that the celebrations continued until late in the night and everyone simply slumped on the floor of the living room at some point would be putting it mildly. Everyone was ecstatic over the engagement. Frisk even wrote down one a big piece of paper ‘Finally!!!’ just to get their point across. You all watched ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ and cheered the happy couple until you fell asleep.

Next morning you woke up belly side down with Frisk sprawled on top of you and with your face pressing against a dirty plate. You probably had sauce all over your hair now. You weren’t even going to touch it. Whose dish was it, even?

You should have eaten at the kitchen table, like the civilized people you were, instead of in the living room. It seemed you weren’t the only one waking up. In fact, it seemed that what had woken you up was the sound of someone stepping on a plate. You look up to see Asgore collecting the plate he had almost crushed to death and trying to be as silent as possible. It was sort of hilarious, considering how big he was.

“ ‘Mornin’.” You said in a haze of sleep.

“Oh, good morning young one.” He said as quietly as possible. You had never thought that his booming could become so soft.

He then noticed your situation and snickered at the ridiculousness of it.

“Do you need my assistance, young one?”

“Yesh pleashe.” You said the slurring brought in part because of your sleepiness and in part because of the fact that you were eating a carpet and had the top half of your face drowning in sauce.

Asgore put the dish down on a place where he wouldn’t be likely to step on it again and tiptoed towards you over the sleeping bodies of the residents. He carefully scooped up Frisk and laid them down next to Toriel. They immediately cuddled to the fluffy goat monster. 

Looking around you could only see a tangle of sleepy monsters sprawled all around looking like a car crash scene minus the broken limbs and bleeding wounds. You would usually also add the twisted metal part but Undyne had, somehow, ended up crunching a metal pan with her fists until it was a twisted mess claiming to be using her strength to make ‘art’ to decorate her new home. 

…

You supposed it could be seen as abstract art?

…

She called it ‘metal pan’.

Monsters really weren’t good at coming up with names, where they?

You followed Asgore through the mess of people, carrying the plate that had given your hair a new color. Asgore retrieved his plate and a few others on the way that you helped carry. Once you had cleared the sea of snores he took the ones you were holding so that you could go for a bath, to which you happily obliged. You usually didn’t really like taking baths and only did so because you had to. You only liked water at the beach or swimming pools Then again you used to have a lot more hair to wash so the task became tedious and the problems with using hot water meant that as soon as you left the stall you would instantly feel cold. Despite baths not being your favorite thing this time you were feeling icky enough that you were actually looking forward to it.

Gosh, you felt so gross with your head covered in sauce.

Once you were finished with your bath you came down the stairs to see that Papyrus and Toriel were also awake but, for once, Asgore was the one trying to make breakfast. ‘Trying’ because Toriel had to instruct him all the way. Papyrus was more than happy to absorb the information as he watched the instructions unfold.

“Oh, good morning, my child!” Toriel noticed your arrival.

“Good morning.” You said, feeling much more coherent than before the bath.

“OH! HELLO SKINNY HUMAN! WE SURE PULLED A FAST ONE ON SANS YESTERDAY, DIDN’T WE!” He commented.

It took you a moment to realize what he was talking about but once you did you couldn’t help but smile, even as your cheeks grew warmer at what you did.

“We sure did. Did you see his face?” The guy was completely flustered. It was adorable.

_**Why did I just woke up to thoughts of how the Cueball has you by the cute meter?**_ Rajani said, having just regained consciousness.

Just because you shared a soul and a mental landscape did not mean that you woke up at the same time.

_Paps._ You replied to her before focusing back on the tall skeleton. The exchange so fast that no one noticed.

“YOU MUST BE MISTAKEN, SKINNY HUMAN. I THINK YOU MEANT TO SAY HIS WHOLE SKULL.” He corrected you.

“Oh! How could I have made such a grave mistake!” You played along with him.

“INDEED, SKINNY HUMAN. THANKFULLY YOU HAVE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, TO KEEP YOU ON TRACK! NYEHEHEHEHEHEH!”

“My hero!” You pretend-swooned. Then you returned to the topic at hand. “Sans skull was so blue! Even on the back of it! I never knew that was possible!”

“That was a _risqué_ move, my child! I have never seen Sans so flustered before.” Toriel commented.

“Y-you saw?” You asked feeling a bit embarrassed -not that you already weren’t-. You had thought she had been in the kitchen cooking dinner.

You didn’t usually throw yourself at a guy that way. The only time you ever did was with Daniel, but only because you had a very perverted friend back then -she was even more pervy than Rajani, which was a feat- and hiding small personal belongings, like USB drives, in your cleavages and daring him to come and get them was a reoccurring game. If you’d been alone there was no way you would have done something like that. All things considered she might not have been the best influence back then. 

Well, at least she cared!

The point still stood. You aren’t the sort of person that just does something of the sort out of the blue, which was why you were embarrassed, but since the reaction you got was so great that made up for a lot of the embarrassment. 

The fact that Toriel knew, however… and, considering his flushed cheeks, Asgore did too…

It cranked up the embarrassment a bit. Thank god Papyrus was in on it too and that they knew it was a joke.

“Of course I did! I was wondering how you would deal with the situation. It was quite an amusing sight to watch, was it not?” She asked Asgore.

“It reminds me of when we first met.” Asgore commented.

“HOW SO, KING ASGORE?” Papyrus asked.

“W-well… hehe!” Asgore was suddenly quite nervous and a blushy mess.

“You see. Back when I was a teenager I was quite rebellious. One could even consider I was a wild untamed teen that indulged on risky behavior. In a way, it was similar to what you youths call ‘punks’? We didn’t have all this modern clothing and hair dos back then, though.”

Your jaw dropped and it was Rajani who spoke.

“YOU WERE A PUNK!?” She blurted out in disbelief.

Toriel laughed gingerly in a completely unassuming tone, muffling her voice with one fuzzy paw.

“No, my child. It was similar in some of the ideologies but it was not the same thing.” She calmed down and continued. “But as I was saying, I was quite rebellious and had a run in with the heir to the throne. You were quite the quiet, shy one back them, were you not?” She asked Asgore.

Asgore blushed again but did try to stammer out a response this time.

“I wasn’t expecting t-to cross paths with such a brazen young lass, t-that’s for sure.” He said.

“Back then I still didn’t know he was the prince of the kingdom. I hadn’t bothered with such tedious matters when I could be having fun chasing mountain lions or fighting grizzly bears.” Toriel admitted.

_**MOUNTAIN LIONS!?!?!?!?!?! GRIZZLY BEARS!?!?!?!?!?! WHAT IS LIFE!?!?!?!?!** _

_Is this the real life~_

_**Nope! Not now!** _

Toriel continued her story telling after appreciating to the full extent the reaction to her words.

“All I saw in front of me was the typical overly pampered teen that barely seemed to function socially. He was stammering so much that he seemed like a male, fuzzier and bigger version of Alphys.” Toriel giggled chastely. “It was adorable.”

“You were really a hard one to read.” Asgore commented. “But that hadn’t been the first time I saw you though, admittedly, all the previous times were from afar.” He seemed to blush a bit at the last part.

Did Asgore already have a crush on Toriel before he actually ran into her?

That’s adorable!

“Suffice to say that I knew her enough to realize she acted just slightly different than she usually did when she flirted with other people she ran into. And that gave me hope.” He said.

“You never told me that.” Toriel commented.

“Well, I never saw reason to do so. Especially when father asked me to spend some time with you for the sake of making you less of a rebel.”

“Your father?” You ask.

“Yes, young one. Our fathers where great friends and her father had asked mine the favor of giving her a good influence.” Asgore explained. “Not that I ever could do anything about that. Toriel is a true force of nature.”

“Oh, shush you!” Toriel batted at his shoulder while blushing prettily.

Asgore seemed completely unrepentant for it. In fact, he even seemed to stand a bit straighter.

“I wondered back then if perhaps my feelings weren’t one sided after all.” He said, voice filled with confidence.

Toriel blushed some more.

“Well, I did just admit that I thought you were adorable, getting all nervous like that.” She said.

You knew they were getting along much better than before. You just hadn’t expected them to already be so friendly with each other. You were starting to feel a bit uncomfortable there.

“Let’s go, Papyrus. Let’s give the lovebirds some privacy.” You commented to the tall skeleton while looping your arm with his.

Papyrus merely nodded and you both left the goat monster flushing further upon realizing what you two were doing.

You helped Papyrus gather the few plates you and Asgore hadn’t collected. You heard some annoyed groans from sleepy monsters and human but payed them no attention, proceeding to gather whatever else that needed cleaning and pondering whether or not you should grab a marker and do some art on their faces.

“YOU’RE HUMMING AGAIN.” Papyrus commented as soon as you were out of the living room

That explained the annoyed groaning from before.

“Again?”

“YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED? THESE PAST FEW DAYS YOU HAVE BEEN HUMMING A LOT.” He explained in a far more muted tone of voice than his usual, though still rather loud.

“I have!?”

“INDEED! NOT THAT I’M COMPLAINING. YOU DO HAVE A BEAUTIFUL VOICE. I’VE JUST BEEN WONDERING IF IT’S BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN FEELING HAPPIER, PERHAPS?” He sounded hopeful and part of you realized that he was still very much worried about you confession of suicidal thoughts from six years ago.

You decided to ponder on the issue some.

“I… suppose so? I hadn’t really noticed that I was. It has been a long time since I have.”

“REALLY?”

“Yep. I used to do it all the time long ago. It was really out of control. And Rajani’s even worse at controlling the humming than I was. I would even start humming and singing in class. And I couldn’t really control it. It would just slip out without me noticing until someone else brought it to my attention.” You explained.

“WELL… WHY DID YOU STOP?”

“… I’m not really sure to be honest. I never put much importance in it.”

“WHAT WAS THAT SONG? IT SOUNDS SOMEWHAT FAMILIAR.” He commented with a frown of concentration marring his features.

“I’m not quite sure… But the melody has been in my head for days now. If I could remember enough of the lyrics I might be able to find the song’s name.” You said. “I went along the lines of something like ‘And I just can’t take my eyes of you, and I just can’t take my eyes of you~’.” You sang.

“HMM!...”

“What’s more annoying is that Rajani seems to know where we know this song from but won’t tell me!”

“REALLY? WHY?”

“She’s going to have to realize when she heard it for the first time all by herself. Then she’ll know why she’s been thinking about it non-stop!” Rajani retorted through you testily.

She had refused to tell you from where you remembered it. The more she refused the more you tried to convince her to tell you, and the more irascible she would get. You figured she must have a reason for not telling you, since she usually doesn’t pose this much resistance.

You hear a noise of someone patting the wall and look up to see frisk wide awake and trying to get your attention.

“I know that song! I heard it at the Halloween party!” They gestured.

“Really?” Then why was Rajani so adamant about you figuring it out by yourself?

“Yes! It was the one right before the movie!”

Oh, right your movie! What was playing before the movie started? You did remember the ‘This is Halloween’ one but… wait… didn’t you…? nah it couldn’t be! Why would you keep that song in particular on your mind?

…

There’s no way it was the same song but… you would check it out later. Just in case…

“Ok…” Was your simple reply as you though out what to say afterwards. “Good morning, squirt!”

_**Genius deflection.**_ Rajani commented sarcastically.

_Shush, you!_

“Good morning.” Frisk replied.

“What a day that yesterday was, am I right?”

“Yup.”

You leaned down and whispered at the kid.

“Wanna cause some havoc for these sleepyheads?”

Their smile widened considerably. Papyrus also seemed intrigued by the idea. You ran to your room and grabbed some markers before coming back down.

“You, know? I was always told that if I were a pokemon I would be a Jigglypuff because I can sing and like drawing. How about I do something else that Jigglypuffs do? And you two help out?”

“I NEVER KNEW PUFFS COULD BE JIGGLY. WHAT DO JIGGLING PUFFS DO, EXACTLY?” Papyrus asked.

You and Frisk held out your respective markers with evil smirks in your faces. 

“They draw!”

“They take revenge on the unworthy with facial doodles!”

You both said and signed at the same time. Papyrus seemed to focus more on Frisks reply, understandingly, and seemed to get the idea.

You drew on Sans’, Alphys’, Undyne’s and MK’s faces. You couldn’t get to draw on Flowey’s because he woke up as soon as he felt the tip touch his face. He now had a beauty mark just under his eyes and that alone was hilarious. He decided to help out too but you didn’t want him to wreck the master piece you were making on Sans face too much so you limited him to the back of the skeleton’s skull.

In the end MK sported an inky monocle and a mustache from Frisk’s part, Alphys was Flowey’s main target, sporting a lot of anime doodles of her favorite series so that she wouldn’t want to wash them out, Undyne had an incredibly detailed flying spaghetti monster across her forehead and Ariel the little mermaid on one of her cheeks. As for Sans, Flowey had filled the back side of his head with doodles on the small skeleton having a bad time while you had taken the blue marker most similar to his blush color and painted his cheeks in big blotches of color, adding on his forehead your new nickname for him: Skelly Bear.

You had also considered others like Cuddle Bones, Starry Eyes and, Teddy Bones and the sappiest of all: Nightlight -because he lights up your nights when you have nightmares and he’s awake-. But Skelly Bear seemed the best choice. He was comfortable to hug like a teddy bear, after all.

You had to stop your drawings when MK started to stir, and quickly hid around the corner with the others to see the reactions.

MK immediately noticed the drawings on the others’ faces and assumed he had some too before trying to wake everyone up. He succeeded with Alphys and Undyne. Sans was still fast asleep. Undyne… was not happy about it and chased you around the house for revenge while Alphys helped wipe MK’s face and took a picture of her doodles before washing them away as well.

The most hilarious part was when Sans finally woke up and, because no one else still had the drawings on, aside from Undyne -who was washing away hers-, he didn’t realize he had them and just walked about in the most oblivious of states.

“Morning, Skelly Bear! How did you sleep?” You asked and he stopped staring at you in surprise since you had never called him that.

You wondered if, under all that ink, he had blushed that pretty shade of blue you had spotted on several occasions.

“uh… i slept fine…?” He said uncertainly as he watched your mischievous expression.

“Are you sure, Sans? You are looking a bit _blue_ faced today.” Toriel added and the fact that he was looking even more avoidant confirmed that he must have really been blushing underneath the ink and had thought that Toriel was referring to that.

How cute…

“You look like you are carrying a load of troubles over your shoulders.” Rajani commented, referring to the ‘bad times’ Flowey had drawn on the back of his skull.

“wha…”

Undyne entered the kitchen. 

“You are going to pay for that, punk!”

“Why me, though?” you asked. “I wasn’t even the one who drew it.”

“Papyrus told me it was your idea!”

“Papyrus! Why did you stab me in the back this way!” You shouted towards the living room where he still was, enjoying the morning cartoons with the kids.

“UNDYNE CAN BE VERY PERSUASIVE!”

“Paps!” You said in disappointment.

“uh… what’s going on?” Sans asked feeling a bit out of the loop.

Undyne looked at him, noticed the nickname and then looked at you.

“You the one who wrote that?” She asked.

“Perhaps…” You said mischievously. “The back was all Flowey, though!”

“what?” He asked looking ever more confused.

“Go take a look at your face, nerd!” Undyne told him and he teleported out.

Not wanting to miss out on the party you ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs. You didn’t hear Undyne say ‘I ship it!’ to Toriel, but you did hear a strangled noise coming from the bathroom where you suspected Sans was.

Then you heard his voice back in the kitchen again.

“where is she?” He asked.

“She ran after you. Go get her. Avenge me too!” Undyne said.

Oh snap! He has a marker, doesn’t he?

You rush down the hallway and, in a stroke of genius, you decide to hide in his room. As expected you heard some muttering from your room where he had teleported into. He would probably look all around the house and then return to your room for good measure but, just in case, you hid in his closet.

It was bit cramped in it but at least you wouldn’t be uncomfortable since the floor was covered in various articles of clothing. You made yourself comfortable and prepared for Sans to finish his first sweep of the mansion…

Then again, he could just grow bored and lazy and give up on searching for you too easily, as you also came to confirm when he teleported on top of his bed, marker still in hand and squiggles sill on his face. You did notice a halfhearted attempt at wiping them out but he probably grew too lazy for that too. He seemed to have brought along a wet towel that he draped on his bedside table.

You tried your hardest to breathe as lightly as you could so that he wouldn’t hear you. You had to get ready for your next plan, after all.

_**What plan? You completely winged it and now you don’t know what the fuck to do!** _

_I said shush!_

You continued to peek through the small crack in the closet door to see what the skeleton was doing and trying to come up with a plan of action. Sans seemed to be fiddling around in his phone a bit. Moments later you realized your ring tone was coming all the way from the living room where you had left it.

“SKINNY HUMAN! IT APPEARS THAT YOUR TELECOMUNICATION DEVICE IS RINGING!” Papyrus called out and added after a moment of silence. “SKINNY HUMAN? WHERE ARE YOU?”

He then must have checked the caller ID because he shouted.

“OH! NEVERMIND. IT’S JUST SANS TRYING TO FIND YOU.”

_**This crafty bastard! I can almost respect him a bit for his quick thinking! It seems he does have something inside his skull after all!**_

_Of course he does! You know as much as I do that he is very smart!_

It wasn’t something you had easily noticed until you began your habit of hanging about together when both of you had insomnia. There, in the dark and silent night, you had managed to wheedle out of him some replies that gave you just an inkling of how smart you theorized he was. Rajani, of course, remained steadfast in her opinion that he was just faking it. Well… she claimed that was her opinion but you were pretty sure that she thought he was a very smart skeleton too.

Rajani really didn’t like to change her opinion, especially when it came to guys.

Sans sighed in disappointment but then he seemed to suddenly have ad idea and teleported out. You came out of the closet but didn’t leave his room yet. You did open, however, his door a bit so that you could listen in what he was saying downstairs in the living room.

“paps, do you mind if i borrow miranda’s dogs for a bit?”

“OF COURSE I DON’T, BROTHER. BUT THEY AREN’T REALLY MINE TO BORROW FROM. WHY IS IT YOU NEED THEM, ANYWAY?”

“oh, nothing important. no need to give me a _ruff_ time about it. ” He replied. “which one is the best tracker by the way?”

“BROTHER… WHY DO YOU REALLY WANT THE DOGS?” Papyrus asked.

_**Oh shit, he is going to get your own dogs to track you down!!!** _

_They aren’t really mine… shit what do we do now? They are too well trained!_

_**Ok, got an idea. Gimme control!** _

You let Rajani take control of your body and waited for what she would do next.

You weren’t prepared for when she started undressing right there in Sans’ room and you must have given her a headache with all your screaming while she insisted on you trusting her. She dropped your clothes three feet in front of the closet, wrote in a paper ‘Psyche!’, dropping it on top of the pile, and then entered the closet, immediately starting to get into a pair of well used sweat pants, a turtle neck sweater that looked as if it hadn’t been used in a long time and Sans’ prized jacket, which he had left in his room. With that done she slid your body underneath all the other clothes to camouflage you and you both waited.

Not long after finishing concealing you, you both heard the quiet tiktiktik of one of your dog’s nails hitting the hardwood of the hall and the creaking of the wood under Sans’ slippers.

“what the…” He said when your dog, whichever one they were, stopped in front of the room door, the only reason you heard him being because the door was next to the closet and the walls were a bit thin.

The door opened and you heard them coming in and tried to muffle your breathing. You heard him stop in front of the pile and wanted to see his expression but Rajani was still in control and wouldn’t let you move an inch, probably for the best.

He emitted some sort of choked noise and then flung the closet door open. Fortunately, Rajani had hid you well and had nerves of steel. You held your breath so that the slightest movement wouldn’t be perceived.

You felt the dog sniffing the pile and hoped he would close the closet before your dog decided to try and dig you out.

You heard a heavy sigh coming from the skeleton as he closed the closet door again.

You heard him dismiss you dog with one of the dog treats you had bought and sit in his bed, rubbing his face with the wet towel you had seen him bring in before. Sometimes he stopped to look into a small cracked mirror he had hanging in his room to see the damage before going back to scrubbing.

He was distracted…

_I’mma pounce him!_

_**Clever. That way he can’t go after us with the marker.** _

_Well, I was going to do it just to mess with him but that works too._

_**How can you be this oblivious…?** _

You didn’t understand what Rajani was getting at so you decided to ignore it. You gently opened the closet door so that a crack was open and you could peek out. To be extra careful, you peeked from the lowest part of the door, still covered in his clothes. He stopped wiping his face for a bit and looked around, having heard the sound of the closet door opening.

After a while of looking about he seemed to have dismissed the sound as being his imagination and went back to scrubbing his face. You carefully peeled the clothing from on top of you so as to get some freedom of movement and crouched, waiting for the perfect time. 

He looked over at the mirror again. The blue cheeks seemed to be mostly gone, but the writing on his forehead was still very much visible. That was still a lot less visible comparing to the doodles on the back of his head.

With an annoyed grunt, he went back to rubbing his face, his eye sockets covered with the fabric. It was now or never!

Instead of slamming the door open and pouncing him, like you had considered doing, you were sneakier about it. If he got startled too soon he would teleport outside of your reach and get you instead. You quietly opened the door and tiptoed towards him. Thankfully the room’s floor was carpeted and you were wearing socks.

You heart was pounding as you considered all the potential outcomes. What if he noticed you just before you attacked? What if he already knew you were there but was letting you think he didn’t? What if he pounced you instead?

You finally managed to reach a close enough distance without him looking up and you wasted no time. You jumped but only released your ‘gotcha!’ after you made sure you had your arms around him.  
If he had skin he would have jumped out of it. He did scream a bit though.

“SANS? IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?” Papyrus asked from downstairs.

“Everything’s ok! I just gave your brother the scare of his life!” You shouted out so that Papyrus wouldn't worry as the small skeleton struggled beneath you, messing up his bed covers even more than they had already been.

“OH. ALRIGHT.”

“hmmfhmfmfh!” Sans tried to say something as his face was being muffled by a mix of his bed covers and the jacket you were sporting.

“Oops! Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to smother you!” You released his face from the fabrics. “So… I heard you wanted to paint me up a bit. I can’t say that I agree with you about that.”

“get off of me.”

“Hmmm… nope! I know you are just going to go after me if I release you.” You said nonchalantly.

“c’mon, kid. you’re crushing my ribs!”

You supposed you were pressing most of your body weight on his chest area. You sat back on his pelvis. You weren’t about to test his belly for seat potential, even if it felt solid. You still kept your hands firmly clasping his forearms so that he wouldn’t try anything, though.

His cheeks were blue again, probably from exertion from all his struggling. If he could sweat he could also feel other side effects of exertion, couldn’t he?

“Sans… I thought we agreed I’m not to be called a kid. I have a name, you know?”

“m-miranda, please get off of me!” he asked, a bit calmer now but looking a bit flustered.

“Only if you promise not to go after me with that marker. OR-” You said before he could accept the bargain. “any other writing or painting supply. Ok?”

“…”

“Sans…”

“fine!”

You smiled at him as you let go of his forearms.

“See? I knew we could reach an agreement!”

He floated you out of his lap and onto the floor.

“Rude!”

“not as much as you spying on me from my closet.” He shot back.

“Not as much as you touching my personal joystick!” You quickly replied.

“will you ever let that go? i'm sorry, ok?”

“NEVAH!” You replied comically.

He rolled his eye lights and started rubbing the wet towel on his face again.

“Gimme!” You reached out your hand for the towel.

He seemed to hesitate before handing it to you.

“Since I was responsible for it I might as well clean it too.” You explained, proceeding to rub the ink away.

Once you were done with the front, you helped around with the back where he couldn’t see the damage. 

This was beginning to be the silliest day in a long time. You couldn’t wait to tell sister about it.

…

It was getting close to that date… wasn’t it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter we get sans POV.
> 
> So... do you approve of Sans' new nickname? Or nah?


	37. Chapter 36: I Was Fine...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we get a glimpse of Sans' past and... some other _stuff_. ~w~  
>  We also get introduced to a weapon of the organization (remember the snipers at the conference?) via documentary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first halve of this chapter was interesting to write. Then there's the brainiac part of this chapter. I had to do MATH to get it right. MATH!!! (I'll put all my process in the end notes for the other brainiacs out there. Man, I feel like I'm a part of the game theorists channel now, only it's a fanfic edition XD)

\--Sans’ POV--

 

Sans was fine. 

Perhaps he hadn’t always been fine but he _became_ fine.

He hadn’t been fine when one of the fallen humans had killed his mother. But he had trained hard to become stronger and stronger to be capable of protecting his family, even though he was but a small child, and he _became_ fine.

He hadn’t been fine when father started spending more and more time at work. But he had studied hard and eventually had gotten a job as a lab assistant and got to spend more time with father and he _became_ fine.

He hadn’t been fine when his father was pushed into the core and every memory of him aside from Sans’ and the murderer’s was erased but he delivered the culprit to the Capital, to the king in person, who still had a vague recollection of him, was offered the job of Judge, got to buy a bigger house for him and Paps and he _became_ fine.

He hadn’t been fine when the anomaly started playing time lord with everyone’s life but he found the Weed and fought and fought and eventually the Weed became bored since all was the same and he stopped for a while and he _became_ fine.

He hadn’t been fine when another child fell underground and Flowey became once again interested in all the possible outcomes but he fought once again until the weed became bored and he _became_ fine.

He hadn’t been fine when yet another kid fell down and made Flowey interested again and the kid killed Papyrus most of the resets but he endured it quietly and killed and killed and killed until Papyrus stayed alive and he _became_ fine.

He _became_ so fine that, when yet another kid fell down and the cycle restarted, he _stayed_ fine… in the beginning, at least.

But then that kid wasn’t a regular kid. And Flowey no longer was the anomaly. He could tell that the kid was learning from each reset and might even be in control of them.

He hadn’t been fine when the kid treated all of monsterkind like toys, simple playthings to distract them from their boredom.

He hadn’t been fine when the kid started going on short killing sprees.

He hadn’t been fine seeing the kid killing his brother, knowing full well that there was nothing that he could do about it, having tried so before for several times when the Weed was still the anomaly.

He hadn’t been fine, but he had no choice in the matter.

And so, when the kid became genocidal he was ready. And he was as fine with everything as he was capable to be.

He lived so long with the resets that he began to rely on the predictability of it all. And he _became_ fine.

The first few times, aside from the very first one, they would all go outside the kid would end up killing someone and then reset but, around the time when the genocides stopped for good, the kid seemed more and more invested in keeping them above. 

Those times the resets had been brought by someone else killing a monster that Frisk was close to, or a human law that dehumanized the monsters was approved, or terrorist attacks on the monsters, but it always led to just after they left the underground instead of being stuck underneath it.

Afterwards, they had managed to somehow circumvent all of the violence from the initial and more vicious anti-monster groups until they settled down as they finished discussing the finer details with the human government. It was the first time they had lasted so long without a reset...

And he began to hope for actually having a future. 

He got a job. It wasn’t a job he liked but it was a job. And he started saving to someday buy a house. Technically Sans still had all his gold from underground but Frisk and Dan had explained it was best not to flood the market with all the gold at once or it would lose its value fast, so all the monsters were stuck converting the gold little by little until all gold was turned into dollars.

He started watching the houses for sale, trying to choose the perfect one for him and his brother. He had seen some he liked but they weren’t the _perfect_ one. He wondered if he should just build one from scratch. It would leave him tired but he could certainly save a lot of money by using his magic to help along the construction work.

Things weren’t going great, per say. He doubted he could ever feel great about anything other than his brother. But things were going just fine in his book.

He, admittedly, had been worried when Miranda entered his life. There were so many things that could go wrong with yet another human in the mix and he had never quite forgiven Frisk for all that he had done in the first place. Accepted, yes, but completely forgiven? How could he when he remembered every single reset. At least the kid was making up for it now. But Miranda...

She had a way of getting under his skin, or would have if he had any.

She saw right through his bullshit and had no problems calling him out on it. But just as she was quick to point out his mistakes, she was also quick in finding out ways to compromise. And she always made sure to consider other people’s point of view, no matter what the subject was. 

Sans had no idea how she could have remained so calm when Flowey started spouting his life story. He knew he hadn’t been and he had dealt with a lot of hard stuff along the years. Eavesdropping on the Weed revealing he was the soulless reincarnation of the prince of the underground had jarred him quite a bit. Yet she calmly listened and diffused the situation.

He didn’t like keeping that secret to himself but he knew that he shouldn’t have been spying on them in the first place.

Then again, how could he not do so? Not where Miranda was concerned. How could he simply trust the Weed not to hurt her? She was too bright and kind for him to simple stand aside as her light was snuffed out!

And she was smart. Boy, was she smart! She might not be a genius but she had a spot-on quick thinking and was capable of thinking carefully about pretty abstract things. She had no mind for math, though -as he came to find out one of the nights he found her awake in the living room-.

She was also great with Papyrus. He admitted he was never capable of telling his brother that his cooking sucked, even when it tasted like death back in the underground, so it was refreshing seeing someone deal with teaching his brother in the ways of cooking without undermining the confidence and cheerfulness that Sans loved about him.

And she had helped _him_.

She had helped with one of his nightmares even though she didn’t need to. She could have just as easily left him alone. And she didn’t even mind that he tossed her about in his room. She just… held him.  
She must have known what it was like. Having nightmares constantly, remembering awful stuff from the past. She must have known. 

His theory was confirmed later when his friend Grillby was attacked by some douchebag humans. He had never seen her so… he had no words for it. He couldn’t say she was enraged, not really. As much as her body had done enraged motions filled with violence, her face had been lifeless and cold. That night she would have had nightmares hadn’t he been there to sing to her.

One thing was for sure, though. She might look like a pushover but when she got angry she had a nasty bite. Sans had to make sure never to go too far pranking her again. He shouldn’t pry too deep into her secrets either. He had never expected to see such a gentle woman act so angry before. And fearful. That had been fear that he saw there too. Fear of having to talk about why she had to give up such a great amount of money each month.

He was still worried about all of that but he knew that she would only tell him anything about it when she wanted to. He doubted he could pry anything out of her even if he’d really, desperately, wanted or needed to. And Rajani freaked him out a bit so that was a big no in prying anything else out of her. He could understand why Slasher acted the way she did but she still freaked him out.

He hadn’t expected to become friends with Miranda but here he was. He had seen her doing the greatest acts of kindness. Even if the spark he now saw more and more often from her soul still had no discernible color to it he was pretty sure she had Kindness as soul trait. She had to! He still didn’t understand the gray and the Selflessness ‘trait’ but he was sure there was Kindness buried underneath it all.

And she was funny too. Not a Toriel, by any means, but she was.

And… she was… q-quite s-sexy too.

Not that he held any special feelings towards her or anything…

Who was he kidding? He most definitely was feeling something for her! Not love. Or at least not yet, anyway. But there was something there. If he had to name it he would say it was more akin to a crush at the very least.

And that was why he was no longer fine.

He had been fine before he realized his feelings were becoming too deep for comfort. But then he had seen how her eyes sparkled as she laughed at his jokes while they were dancing and he was lost. And now he was afraid of the situation he was getting himself into. 

He had spent those six days after the Halloween party trying to stay away from her. Alphys and Undyne had made it easy for him to have an excuse to do so. Their shipping got so extreme even Frisk disapproved. So, he didn’t hurt Miranda’s feelings by staying away. 

…

Unfortunately, he couldn’t get her black lacy bra out of his mind after getting a glimpse of it in the bathroom. If he already had feelings leaning towards romance for her before, he now had other sort of feelings clouding his mind in unison with those.

And the other situations the scale-duo had dragged him into only made it worse.

Miranda was mostly annoyed with it and didn’t seem to care the slightest about being that close and personal with, or being seen by, him. 

That was a bit disheartening.

And then yesterday, with Undyne’s proposal… She had to distract Alphys…

The way she leaned into him and practically purred her lines. He knew she was acting. He knew it was just for show. But still… He had to fight off the lewd expression he was sure was trying to crawl into his face as she pouted with her pretty little mouth.

She wasn’t the kind of woman who pouted. But damn was it attractive on her! Just as much as the adorable smirk she sported when she used all those puns about his blue blush back when she had ‘the talk’ with Toriel.

And then Papyrus’ double entendre had knocked him flat on his ass and partially killed the boner he was about to pop. But on the other hand… Stimulating her to the point she wouldn’t be able to sleep the whole night…

Oh, he didn’t have stimulating _conversations_ in mind. Not at all.

All he had on his mind was nibbling on her delicate neck, taking advantage of the weak points Slasher had revealed about her. He could just imagine her moaning underneath him, straining for more. He wanted to run his hands all over her body. Her breasts weren’t too big. If he had to guess he would say a C cup. But her hips? They were wide. She had gained some weight and was now on the healthy side, but even when she had been too skinny her hips had been wide. It was the bones underneath, she had said.

She hadn’t seemed to like that fact much, though. It came up in conversation that wide hips were a common trait in her family. Supposedly it made for an easier childbirth but she wasn’t certain she liked that, considering she was still afraid of the labor pains and had no one she wanted to have children with, so it was a moot point anyway.

He loved them, though. He imagined grabbing her by her fleshy hips as he plunged into her warmth over and over until they were both sated.

So, having her tackling him to his own bed, sitting on top of his pelvis while restraining his forearms at his sides? That just brought too many of those sinful scenarios to mind and he had to get her out of there before he actually popped a boner.

Oh god! How mortified would he be if she felt it, rigid and standing to attention! She would hate him, wouldn’t she? She clearly hadn’t tackled him with sexual intents! She would be disgusted by him getting turned on only with her pining him down. She had to!

…

She looked awesome in his clothes.

They were short on her and she had a strip on flesh in her belly showing, because his sweatpants hanged low and tight on her hips and his old turtleneck barely got down to her waist. And they were HIS CLOTHES!!!

He had to concentrate very hard on keeping his mind away from any more sexual fantasies trying to come out. Thankfully she wasn’t sitting on his lap anymore.

She was complaining about him calling her a kid again as she wiped his face. God, he loved having her hands on his face!

And then, like a switch had been turned, she was sad again. That was enough to clear any remaining sensual daze from his mind and awake his need to nurture her.

“so… why skelly bear?”

“Hmm? Oh! The nickname! Because you’re a skeleton but you are also comfortable to hug like a giant teddy bear.” She said smiling cutely and he couldn’t help but blush at that.

No wonder he was falling hard.

… if Frisk reset he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to keep himself away from her. He wouldn’t be able to follow the script… and he would scare her away. She wouldn’t know him from anywhere and she wouldn’t trust him. She would suspect him of stalking her. And none of those things would be her fault.

Miranda wasn’t someone who trusted easily and had only done so with them because she was living there and exposed to their antics every single day. And the only reason she was living there in the first place was because she had to. If, for some reason, Frisk had to reset and he couldn’t keep away from Miranda so as to let everything unroll the way it was supposed to… 

And that was why he had been trying to keep away from her and not let his feelings grow deeper.

…

Sans had been fine.

But now he wasn’t.

He had to nip these feelings in the bud before everything went too far. He had to make sure they would just be friends and nothing more.

And friends helped each other out, didn’t they?

“welp!” He said so as not to let the conversation die and to keep her distracted from whatever was tormenting her. “this means I have to come up with a cutesy nickname for you too, doesn’t it?”

“Well… If you really want to…”

“what about brownie?”

“…why?”

“because of the sweet brown-e you made me the other day.” He still had the E cutout she had presented him with, not that anyone needed to know that… most especially not her. It was also the color of her lovely eyes that he adored looking into whenever he could… another thing she didn’t need to know about.

“I… suppose it’s cute, in a way… I’m not sure it’s a ‘me’ nickname.” She said hesitantly and he knew she was actually being honest about her opinion. She didn’t hate it, but she didn’t really like it either.

“it’s better than skelly bear at least. so, i’ll keep calling you brownie.” He said.

It was a lie. He had loved the nickname, especially since she said hugging him was comfortable. But he knew that she wouldn’t call him that if he didn’t give her an incentive to do so. So, he pretended not to like it while claiming he would still call her the nickname he had picked. That was a fool proof way of leaving her all bristled up. Her response was predictable.

“Just because of that I’ll keep calling you Skelly Bear!” She said.

He shrugged as nonchalantly as possible and then winked as he said his next line.

“whatever you say, _brownie_. ”

She turned him around and started scrubbing the back of his skull with too much zeal. It was worth it, though, if it ensured she kept calling him Skelly Bear. And he also considered it a win for him because it had scrubbed off for good the despondent expression she had been exuding previously.

Once she was done with the scrubbing she kicked him out of his own bedroom so that she could put on her clothes again. It saddened him that she was no longer wearing his clothes with his scent on them but he got her to keep calling him Skelly Bear permanently so he wasn’t too sad.

She quickly left his room back in her clothes and seemed a bit surprised at seeing him still there waiting but didn’t seem to mind it much in the end and had walked down to the living room with him in tow.

“AH! I SEE THAT YOU HAVE FAILED TO MARR THE SKINNY HUMAN’S SKIN! AS EXPECTED OF ONE AS GREAT AS SHE!” His brother said to him and Miranda went on to collect the leashes of her dogs.

“you’re right, bro. _tibia_ honest, i should have expected this. ”

“SANS!” His brother shouted before he made a resigned expression. 

When Miranda entered the living room again he was quick to dodge away from hearing anymore puns.

“SKINNY HUMAN! LET ME ACCOMPANY YOU OUTSIDE!”

“Ok.” She nodded and glanced at him, probably realizing that he was about to ‘torture’ his brother with puns.

“I’m gonna go with you!!!” Undyne said rushing out from the kitchen to join them.

Sans ignored the noise and took hold of the remote since everyone else was in the kitchen eating breakfast. He zapped for a bit before coming across a documentary about an antimatter bomb that had detonated a couple of years back. 

He hadn’t realized someone had come up with a way to create an antimatter weapon. And how did they get enough antimatter to just squander it just like that? From what he had read of the humans’ science books on the subject, antimatter was extremely difficult and expensive to create.

The documentary went on to explain that even though the most logic candidate for the explosion would have been Antimatter-Catalyzed Micro Fission/Fusion, which easier to produce and was something that NASA Was trying to create for the purpose of creating spaceship fuel, but was still very much expensive.

Unfortunately, lab tests had indicated that it had been, indeed, an antimatter explosion. According to their calculations the bomb had to have had an amount of 1,2553 micrograms of antimatter to destroy the 20.000 meters building without damaging the surrounding area much. Considering that in the 30 or so years that scientists began studying antimatter only an amount as small as ten billionths of a gram was ever created that meant that someone had managed to covertly create more than a hundred times that amount easily enough to squander it in bombs, which was very concerning to say the least.

Apparently, an anonymous person had claimed that the target of the bomb had been a renowned war veteran from America who was visiting Lisbon on vacation with his family but several other theories were being circulated on the internet about it.

“It w-w-wasn’t b-because of him, you k-k-know?” Alphys said and he almost jumped up from his seat.

Apparently, she had returned from the kitchen for some time but he had been to focused on the documentary that he hadn’t noticed.

“huh?”

“T-t-the antimatter b-bomb.”

“oh. how do you know?”

“T-the group t-that attacked us in t-t-t-the c-conference. I r-read t-their chat l-log as f-far back as I c-c-could. T-t-they ment-t-tioned it.”

Sans gawked at that information, wondering how they had access to such advanced science and yet still chose to do what they did.

“you mean that the people who detonated the antimatter bomb and the people who attacked us at the conference are the same ones!?” He asked flabbergasted.

That was bad. Even though monsters were mostly made of magic they still had matter in them. 

“T-t-they used t-the veteran as an ex-x-x-xcuse. T-t-they wanted t-to show an w-w-war leader t-t-their prowess. A d-d-demonstration. It was j-j-j-just business t-t-to them. Lives m-m-mean nothing t-to them.” Alphys shivered.

“why didn’t you tell anyone about that?” Sans asked.

He had known that the group was looking for profit when they attacked them. He knew that the only reason they had done it in the first place was to kill Frisk and injure some monsters and then offer their services to keep everyone else of monsterkind safe… for a pretty hefty price. He had known they knew about all the gold that monsters had and wanted to get some of it.

He did not know that they had antimatter weapons hidden on the backstage!

“I d-d-did! I t-told the k-king. I wasn’t s-s-sure you would w-w-want to know.” Alphys explained.

...

He supposed he could understand why. He had practically cut off all his interest in science after the sixth child fell, not counting Chara, which was something not even his father’s death had managed to do. Sure, he had refused the position of royal scientist, but he had still remained interested in science. After Alphys was elected he even helped out for a bit, especially when it came to dealing with his father’s projects.

He had cut himself off form everything he used to care about slowly in his point of view, but he was the only one who really remembered the resets so, from her point of view, his change was sudden and abrupt.

…

It was the first time he realized that. He had never really considered anyone’s point of view aside from his brother’s. No wonder Alphys had become desperate to find a solution, suddenly all by herself… He hadn’t really blamed her for it before but this was the first time he actually felt a semblance of guilt.

…

He guessed that Miranda was rubbing off on him after all, though not in the way his lewd mind kept wanting her to.

“oh. …i understand why… but still! this is a serious threat!”

“Don’t worry Sans. We are taking precautions against the antimatter weapon.” Asgore said as he entered the room with Toriel. “Alphys has been trying to get in contact with the Portuguese scientists that studied the leftover material from the blast as well as the NASA scientists but there’s still too much red tape to get through.”

“why investigating the leftover material from the blast, though?” He asked feeling a bit confused. They already knew what antimatter was. They needed to find a way to fight it off instead.

“W-w-well, they are j-just about t-to talk about it.” Alphys pointed to the screen.

In it Sans saw and old photograph just after the explosion. He could clearly see the hallowed out building with barely any walls standing, completely wrecked… aside from a strip of it that extended from around ten meters from the epicenter of the blast to the outer wall… as if… something had blocked the effects of the antimatter and protected all that was behind it? How?

“what is that?” He asked.

“N-no one knows f-for sure, b-but something blocked t-the effects. T-they think it m-might have been t-the B-Banshee.” Alphys explained.

What did she mean, something blocked antimatter? There was a reason antimatter was called that. Whatever matter it hit would fade away in almost the same amount! Nothing material could withstand antimatter! And… 

“banshee?” He voiced feeling very much confused. What did a mythical screaming lady from Irish culture have to do with antimatter?

“T-they might s-show her in a m-m-moment but…” Alphys took out her phone and handed it to him after a quick search.

It was a photo of a woman in a beautiful yellow dress stained in blood, with long brown hair clutching the limp body of another woman, surrounded by gore and wreckage, as she appeared to be screaming to the skies in pain. 

The text below the picture detailed that no one knew who the woman was and that she had vanished after the incident. Because no one knew her name some Mexican kid online had called her la llorona, which basically translated to ‘the weeping woman’. Someone else had then suggested Banshee because the legend of a woman who cries upon a death fitted the scene more than a woman in white that lost her children in a river. The text went on to explain that she had been sprawling on the floor just in front of where the wreckage stopped in that thin stretch of land unaffected from the blast. That she might have had something to do with whatever had stopped the devastation from the antimatter in that place and, consequently, saved the lives of the people behind her, as few and they had been. And then she’d simply disappeared in the midst of the chaos that followed, as if she was never even there.

He hoped that they were overdramatizing that last part. It would do no good to have someone else that could travel through the void the way he did. But if she could, did that mean she used magic?

This time he heard Papyrus, Miranda and Undyne entering the living room so he wasn’t so surprised when his brother noticed the gruesome image now reflected in the television, this time with a lot more blur covering the gory bits so as not to traumatize the audience’ and gasped in horror.

“BROTHER! ARE YOU SEEING ANOTHER HORROR MOVIE? IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY WITH THE KIDS AROUND!?”

“no, paps. This is very much real.”

“What happened?” Undyne asked.

“An ant-t-t-timatter b-bomb.” Alphys informed her.

“I’m going to go upstairs, ok?” Miranda announced a bit abruptly.

“O-oh! Ok! I’ll have t-the s-soulbot r-r-r-ready by t-this afternoon, i-i-is that ok?” Alphys asked. 

“Sure.”

“SANS… WHAT IS THAT BOMB AND WHY ARE YOU SO WORRIED ABOUT IT? IS IT THAT DIFFERENT FROM REGULAR BOMBS?”

Sans hesitated. He really didn’t want to tell him but he deserved to know.

“antimatter is a material that cancels out all matter it comes into contact with. and the people that planted that bomb are the same that attacked us months back.” 

He proceeded to try to stress across the point of how dangerous antimatter was. After Papyrus’ foolish act at the conference, Sans really needed to make sure his brother stayed safe. They kept discussing the antimatter until Toriel affirmed that conversation wasn’t one they needed to have in front of children.

He changed channels to something far more innocent but, deep inside, he couldn’t help but feel threatened by that knowledge. Who’s to say they wouldn’t gun for the monsters again. Who’s to say that this time they wouldn’t bring an antimatter bomb instead of rifles? They didn’t have way to defend against that yet! And if Miranda tried to play hero again and ran away with the bomb and died alone? What if they all died?

…

He really didn’t want the kid to reset again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **BONUS: dah math!!! (insert sarcastic 'yey!' here)**
> 
> It comes to no surprise that I had to calculate some shit for this last part of the chapter. So… the information I had was that 1 pound of antimatter had the power of 19 megatons of TNT. To make a comparison, Hiroshima’s bomb only had the power of 15 kilotons of TNT so it’s a pretty hefty difference… and way too big for what I needed. For an area of 20.000 square meters (around 4,9 acres) I would need way less.
> 
> So, first I had to calculate how much destruction TNT caused and came across a site that showed the radius of destruction caused by 1 kilogram of TNT (around 2,2 pounds) was around 11 meters (around 36 feet) away from the epicenter of the blast to be somewhat safe from insta-death and most serious injuries (unless there were metal parts being projected). Having that eleven meters’ mark as reference. I imagined it was the radius of a circle and calculated the area of it. The result was around 380 square meters (around 4090.28 square feet). 
> 
> Having that number (recap, meaning that 1kg of TNT wrecks 380 square meters) I calculated via proportion how much TNT would be needed for 20000 square meters. The result was around 53Kg (around 117 pounds). 
> 
> Now I know that a pound of antimatter has the same power as 19mt of TNT (I converted it to kg to make the calculations easier which is 19000000000kg) and I need to know how much antimatter would have the same power as 53kg of TNT. The solution was 0,000000001255263157894737kg or, to simplify, 1.2553 micrograms (mcg). The amount of antimatter that has been created in all 30 years of it being studied is 10 billionth of a gram (or 0.00000001g). Measured in micrograms it would be 0,01mcg. Yep, the difference is big.
> 
> Lesson over! (sorry to go all game theorist on ya, guys. ^_^')


	38. Chapter 37: A Storm Lingers in the Horizon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MK is feeling a bit under the weather.  
> ...  
> (I swear that as I stater to write this summary I didn't have the intention of punning with the tittle but now that I have... XD I'll keep it)
> 
> insert some steven universe, joke-flirting and pranks and you had your chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot to mention in the last chapter (like a big ginormous doofus) that the last chapter's tittle (and some of the tone of it) was inspired in this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BLfQer8wjk (I basically was continuously listening to this while writing it.
> 
> As for this chapter, there's no particular inspiration. Just a very generic saying.

You laid on your bed wanting to keep the whole world out and away from you but even so much as glancing at the calendar on the wall made you queasy. The day was drawing near. You had almost forgotten but it was still coming. 

Five days…

That’s how long you had to get yourself fully mentally prepared to visit her. It seemed so little time…

A part of you hoped she would look back at you for once. Every other part of your being knew she wouldn’t. She hadn’t in the past soon to be three years. Knowing that made your heart feel heavy and you just wanted to sleep your last free ‘vacation’ day away. You would be returning to work the next day and that didn’t help you lift your spirits at all.

_**It’s going to be ok. You know you can count on me if it gets too overwhelming.**_ Rajani said.

_Thanks._

You were interrupted by a knock on the door. Well… not really a knock. More of a thud. And then the voice of MK spoke out.

“Yo, Miranda! Can I come in?” 

You really weren’t in the greatest mood to entertain anyone but decided to make the effort of socializing.

“Sure. Come on in.” Then you lamely realized that he would have some trouble opening the door with his teeth since the knob was round. “Wait. I forgot I locked it. Let me go there instead.” You lied so as not to hurt his meager child pride over the fact that he had no arms.

“Thanks!” Mk said as you opened the door and you noticed you weren’t the only one feeling a bit off today.

“What’s up, sweetie? You seem a bit sad.” You asked, kneeling to his level.

“O-oh! It’s nothing. I’m fine!” He quickly replied, which only further cemented that he wasn’t fine.

“Liar.” You smiled at him tenderly. “But if you don’t want to tell me it’s ok.”

“… Thanks.”

“So, what do you want to do now?” You ask feeling a bit awkward.

Most of your stuff was still in boxes and you really didn’t have much stuff to do there in the first place but he didn’t seem to care, snuggling close to you in your bed. You wrapped your arm around him.  
You decided to grab your computer and opened YouTube, and you laid there watching Pewdiepie’s funny moments montage of him getting scared in horror games. It had a lot of swear words but even you knew that kids probably heard a lot worse at school. You knew you did when you were young. MK slowly began to relax and looked less sad.

Someone knocked on the door to your room again, this time actual knocking.

“Yes?” You call out, pausing the video.

“Miranda, is MK there? It’s almost time for him to go to school.” Toriel said from the other side.

“He is but…” You looked at him and he stared up at you pleadingly. “…I don’t think he is feeling up to it right now.”

You knew it wasn’t the responsible thing to do but, dammit, you would not force him to go to school when he was feeling so under the weather.

Toriel opened the door a bit to peer inside and, when she saw you with Kid and how sad he looked she finally replied.

“Indeed, he does not look too well. I shall tell Frisk and Flowey to go on alone and call the teacher. I’ll leave him to you for now. Undyne said she needed to talk to me about something.”

With that said she closed the door again and left. You were pretty sure it wouldn’t be long until she started on her baking to cheer MK up. You cuddled MK up further and turned your attention back to the screen.

“Have anything in mind for what you want to watch next?” You asked.

He seemed to ponder on it for a bit.

“Perhaps a cartoon series?”

“Avatar?”

“I don’t want to finish watching it without Frisk, though.”

“Hmm… Steven Universe? But then again you might want to watch that with Frisk too.”

“What’s that one about?”

“It’s about a kid named Steven who is a hybrid between humans and an alien species called gems that are based on real life gemstones. He goes on adventures as he tries to get a grip on his own gem powers.”

MK pondered for a bit.

“Let’s watch it.” He said at last.

“Ok.”

You opened a new navigation window and searched for your preferred online cartoon site. With a few more clicks you finally reached the first episode of the first season. Wow, you hadn’t remembered how drastically different the Gems used to look. You sang along the intro song merrily as MK watched enraptured.

Steven Universe might initially look like the stereotypical fluffy cutesy cartoon for kids but it actually tackled serious subjects a whole lot too. Morality, right and wrong, loss, friendship and a whole lot more.

By the third time the intro played MK actually sang it along with you.

You were interrupted by more knocking and Undyne peeked inside.

“Hey, finished talking with Toriel?” You asked.

“Yeah… Are you alright, MK?” She asked seeming very much concerned.

“I’m fine.”

“Ok… Can I talk to you for a moment?” She asked, uncharacteristically shy.

You smiled a bit, guessing at what she wanted to talk to him about, before looking back down at MK.

“You can go. I’ll pause the video.” 

“… ok.”  
You paused the video as MK stood up from your arms. You decided to leave your own room for their sake instead of forcing them out, but once outside you had no idea where you wanted to go. 

Were they still watching that awful documentary downstairs? 

You decided you’d join Toriel in the kitchen. If she wasn’t in the kitchen then you would just attempt at some baking by yourself. You were craving sugar induced endorphins a whole lot.

Fortunately, she was in the kitchen and so was Sans. You paused on the entrance to the kitchen, unsure if you wanted to interrupt. Toriel might not have romantic feelings for Sans, but if he did have them for her -like you suspected-, you were pretty sure he would appreciate some alone time with his lady friend. One sided feelings, be it crush or actual love, suck balls by norm.

Just as you had finally decided to back away Toriel noticed you.

“Come on in, my child! Did you need something?”

You blushed at being caught staring but, looking at Sans, he didn’t seem to mind you joining them much… or he had a heck of a poker face. You decided to come in.

“I was thinking of baking.” You admit. “I’m craving something sweet.”

“Oh! That’s a great idea! We need to celebrate too, so something sweet would be wonderful!” Toriel commented cheerily, immediately starting to take out some cookbooks.

“Oh. Are we continuing yesterday’s celebrations?” You asked walking to her side to watch what she was doing.

“That too, but we will also be celebrating MK getting a new family.”

“Oh! She finally asked you about it? I was wondering when she would.”

“You knew about it, my child?” Toriel asked you, surprised.

“I, uh…” You started uncertainly. “Don’t tell her but I sort of… nudged her? …a tiny little smudgy bit into doing it?”

Both monsters simply stared at you, flustering you even further.

“L-look! I just though… Well they were all getting along together… you know, like a family should! And MK already liked Undyne. Undyne was looking at MK like she was seeing her future children and Alphys seemed to get along with him too, so…”

Both of them burst laughing at your blubbering. 

“W-what!?” You demanded as they went on laughing.

“you convinced undyne to adopt mk?” Sans asked after calming down. “so what!? why are you acting like you committed a crime?”

“Indeed, my child. I apologize if we made you feel insecure by our staring but you don’t usually stutter and it was a complete surprise to us that you, as you put it, ‘nudged’ Undyne into thinking of adoption. You mostly keep to yourself.”

You felt instant relief at that but you didn’t trust the feeling completely. You had long stopped taking for granted that people wouldn’t call you manipulative.

“Thanks. I just saw how obvious it was and just had to do something, so… They would have eventually reached the same conclusion anyway. I just… pointed out what was already there… look, let’s just forget I ever said anything.” You practically begged them.

“whoa, kid, chill down. you’re actin’ like we are going to _burn_ you at the stake or something. ”

“S-sorry.” You apologize lamely, completely missing Sans' cooking pun.

Sans frowned at your uncharacteristic behavior but Toriel didn’t seem to mind much.

“It’s quite alright, my child. What do you have in mind for today’s baking?” Toriel asked you.

“No idea. I just wanted something sweet…” You see Toriel flipping her cook book to a very appealing page. “Is that a recipe for raspberry pie?!” 

Toriel chuckles a bit.

“I take it you like raspberries.”

“Sure do!”

“well why didn’t you say so? I have a raspberry right here.” Sans said.

You were suspicious of his tone of voice but still turned to look at him.

“Oh yeah?” You asked.

“yup.” He said, and then proceeded to blow you a raspberry.

…

With a very cyan colored tongue that seemed to be made of a solid-jelly-like substance that seemed to emit a very faint glow.

You couldn’t help but blush and get flustered at the sight of it. Rajani didn’t hesitate to act, though. As you were still wondering why the heck you were blushing like a school girl, Rajani took over and sauntered towards him with a fiercely challenging expression in her eyes.

“Oh, my! How shall I eat this raspberry? It seems very much attached to your face.” She purred at him. “Do you mind if I just gobble it up whole anyway?”

Now it was Sans’ turn to blush and fluster, immediately slurping his tongue back inside.

“n-no thanks. i think i’d rather keep it for someone special.”

“Thought so, Cueball!” With that Rajani went back next to Toriel, giving you back your control.

_Raj… why?_ You said, blushing even further as you add out loud. “Sorry about Rajani!”

_**To keep him and Toriel from noticing how flustered you were about something that usually only annoys you.** _

You pondered for a second.

_Whoa! You’re right. That’s odd. I never react this way. Weird…_

_**C’mon, thank the all-knowing Raj. You know you want to.** _

_Ok, fine! Thank you._ You smiled at her sassiness.

Rajani mentally smirked back at you before she let you concentrate on helping Toriel.

It didn’t take long for you to notice that certain items were disappearing from where you left them and reappearing some place completely different. Toriel noticed it too. You two shared a look filled with plotting and mock revenge.

“It appears I forgot to take one ingredient out for the pie dough!” Toriel said while covertly handing you a napkin full of flour.

“Oh? What is it?” You asked leaning towards her as if to read the cook book and took the chance to grab the napkin from her and shoving it inside your apron’s pocket.

“This one here.” She pointed to the baking sugar you were sure had already been placed on the counter but was ‘inexplicably’ missing.

“Oh! The baking sugar. Where is it kept? I’ll go grab it for you.”

“Oh, just inside that cabinet over there!” Toriel pointed to a cabinet near Sans. “Thank you, dear child.”

“You’re welcome!” You walked towards the cabinet and made a show out of searching for the sugar there, trying not to lay it too thick lest Sans start to doubt the veracity of your actions.

“Oh! Never mind. I found it, my child.”

“Oh? Where?” You asked straightening from the crouch you were in, taking the chance of slipping the folded napkin out of your pocket without Sans noticing.

“It was right here all along, it seems. This is starting to get ridiculous!” Toriel said with an annoyed edge to her voice.

“Indeed!” You started strutting past Sans as casually as possible only to let the half way unfolded napkin fall on his skull, flour spreading everywhere over him.

Sans coughed and sneezed at all the flour that entered his nose hole and mouth for a bit before good naturally tossing some of the flour on top of his skull at you.

Your flour battle was interrupted when Undyne reentered the kitchen with MK in tow. You didn’t want to cause an all-out battle while trying to cook a raspberry pie so when she asked what you were doing you said you were making it snow on Sans’ skull. She took your word for it.

Then again, she was more interested in sharing the latest good news.

“Good news, punks! I’m a mom now!” She said.

“Congrats!” You said, this time meaning it wholeheartedly instead of just as a reflex.

You then turned towards MK, noticing that he no longer seemed to be so moody. Had he been worried because Undyne and Alphys had told everyone they would be moving out and thought they were leaving him behind? It sure seemed like it had been the case.

“Are you feeling better now, MK?” You asked. You felt somewhat flattered that he had seeked comfort with you out of the whole household.

“Yes!” He said cheerfully.

“We’re going to go announce it to everyone else!!!” Undyne took hold of Kid and dashed off with her new ‘quest’.

You couldn’t help but smile at their antics, hoping that the days remained as happy and simple as this one.

But deep down you knew that a storm could devastate your peace of mind at any moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sans used flirt.   
> It was super effective.  
> Miranda's defense fell.
> 
> Rajani used flirt.  
> It was super effective.  
> Sans fled the battle.
> 
> =^w^=


	39. Chapter 38: Broken Hallelujah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rajani gets a body, Miranda plays piano and we learn about one of the fallen children before Frisk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a bit of a heart breaking chapter. Originally I intended to do fluff but it didn't sit right by me. the story just flew over that and wrote itself. ^_^'

Rajani getting the final version of her soulbot was somewhat underwhelming for the most part. Maybe it was because after all the shenanigans that had happened last time this seemed tame in comparison? You were mostly sure it was because your time until the 11th of November was running out.

Whatever the case, Rajani getting her soulbot was still somewhat entertaining to watch, even if you were a bit out of it.

Alphys had been the last person arriving home. Even Asgore had managed to arrive before her. There was still a slice of raspberry pie left for her, but only because you did have a sense of self-restraint… and also because Toriel was guarding it with all her motherly love.

Undyne had her day off and MK badgered her into watching Steven Universe with him. Sans had to leave for work at some point but both you and Toriel joined those two, this time watching it in the living room. So far Undyne seemed to like Garnet a lot. You wondered what she would say once she found out about Ruby and Sapphire. Toriel had initially been interested in Pearl but, with a few snippets of Rose Quartz, she now had a new favorite. After all, how could she not like a character who gave up her whole being to give birth to her beloved son?

It was basically unanimous that Amethyst’s personality would be what a mixture of Papyrus and Sans would sound like. On one hand she was the funny character that was too lazy and her ‘room’ was a literal wasteland, on the other she had too much energy, similar to Papyrus. It was a mostly ‘Sans with a sprinkle of Papyrus in it’ sort of mixture but still…

You were once again in the privacy on your room when Alphys revealed the final version of the robot. It still looked like an Aradiabot with your face in it, Rajani’s preferred dark red colored hair and now sporting the candy corn colored horns typical of troll race.

She was gorgeous and Rajani wholeheartedly agreed.

When Alphys took the antenna out you didn’t really see any changes, just like you hadn’t seen any changes in the soulbot, but then again you didn’t have any knowledge in robotics. The antenna attached with the same weird and cold sensation from before on your soul.

 _ **Hmm… it fells odd!**_ = **Hmm… it feels odd!** = You heard her comment both in your mind and in real life from the robot whose expression didn’t change. Alphys had said that the face was too small for her to comfortably make it emote and she didn’t want to risk other important circuitry.

“How so?” You asked Rajani out loud for Alphys’ sake, since she couldn't hear you if you thought it.

= **Can’t focus. Urgh! I think there’s something wrong with my eyes**.=

“W-w-what is?” Alphys asked worriedly.

= **It looks like… like… Oh! I get it now!** =

“What?” You asked as you feel her mind squirming as if trying to adapt to something new.

= **Gimme a moment** =

You and Alphys waited for a bit. Eventually she spoke up again.

= **Ok. I’m done now. I was confused because I was seeing two things at once and they were overlapping. I was seeing from Mir’s eyes at the same moment as I was seeing from my bot’s. I had to learn to toggle from one to the other. It feels fuckin weird.** =

“Raj! You’d better not curse as much as you do when you talk to me via mind. The kids can hear you now.” You warned her. “And so can Toriel.”

“C-c-can you feel your body?” Alphys asked, ignoring you banter.

= **Haven’t gone over that yet. Lemme see...** = She proceeded to lift your hand so fast and hard that, for all intents and purposes, you just smacked yourself.

“RAJ!” You cried out. “Wrong body!”

= **Oops.** =

Rajani proceeded to think so hard on what to move next and how to do it that Rajbot worded all her thought process to the very last detail. It took a few awkward moments before she figured out how to activate her robot body.

Once she did, she started carefully moving each of her limbs and other body parts until she got used to the movements. Only then did she stood up from the box her body was in. The heart screen glowed gray tinged indigo and the once blank pupils glowed in the same color. 

She brushed of her metallic tinted skirt off once upright and promptly fell backwards due to a lack of balance. It was adorable, in a way.

She seemed aggravated at that and stood up angrily as a fire started in her heels and propelled her up to the ceiling, making her whack her head in the plaster before plummeting down once more.

= **What the ACTUAL fuck!? Did I just fly?!** =

“Y-yeah. You see… s-s-since your body is s-so tiny I th-h-h-hought that a new way of l-locomotion might be b-best-” Alphys started explaining.

= **This… is… AWESOME!!!!!!!!** =

With little to no regard for her own safety, Rajani immediately began swooshing all over the place, laughing maniacally.

She then flew out of the open window like a loose arrow with the same insane laugh, proceeding to another open window on the lowest floor and, by the sound of it, scaring the buh-jeesus out of everyone there.

You rushed downstairs with Alphys and watched her fly in circles around the chandelier.

= **Look at me! I’m a genderbent Peter Pan!!!** =

And then she began to sing.

= **~When there's a smile in your heart  
There's no better time to start  
Think of all the joy you'll find  
When you leave the world behind  
And bid your cares goodbye~**= 

= **~You can fly, you can fly!  
You can fly, you can fly!  
You can fly!~**= 

“C’mon enough with the theatrics, silly Raj!” You call her down.

= **You’re just jealous ‘cause you can’t fly like me.** =

“You don’t need to gloat, you know?”

Of course, seeing just an amazing development, the dogs' first reaction was trying to hunt the tiny robot down whereas the cats decided it was wiser to just give her a wide breath aside from Dusk who seemed pretty unfazed.

You suppose there’s nothing that can surprise your cat anymore.

With Rajani having her own body, conversation was a lot easier. It didn’t mean that she wouldn’t still take you over to embarrass you but by then the monsters already had a good Raj-meter to detect her influence. 

She did receive a few death glares from Toriel, though. She really should learn to swear less in front of the kids. You already had a few slip ups since you didn’t realize that tamer words for Portuguese standards, like ‘damn’ and ‘hell’, where still considered swear words but Rajani really took the cake when it came to curse words. In fact, she took it whole and smashed it in the face of the innocent bystanders with a gleeful smile, if one were to take it metaphorically.

In the end, she seemed to get along well with everyone, even the ones she was most ‘grumpy’ with.

Next day you took her to work with you. She had always helped you along with some designs. Not so much that she was absolutely needed, though. She always made sure that you could do your work without her help.

Your co-workers were thrilled at having a sentient robot there with them, especially Nedd, who was a bit of a mecha nerd and ‘saw potential’ in her. They all thought she was a monster like Mettaton, though.

You did nothing to correct them but Rajani immediately spouted all the truth about being an alternate personality of yours, which made you cringe on the inside. She had always hated to lie or hide things so it’s understandable.

Fortunately, instead of disbelief or looking at you like you were insane, your team mates seemed more fascinated than anything, asking you all sort of questions as well. You had to put an end to the interrogation when Nedd started to ponder whether having multiple personalities meant that you would always invariably have threesomes. 

Well, he never actually said those words, but he did imply via several layers of innuendos.

Actually, despite everything, you were beginning to believe that telling the monsters about Rajani and having Alphys build her a body was the best thing you had done for both of you since you can’t remember when. 

When it was just the monsters knowing, it had given you a comfortable place to relax your guard around your mind sister without fear of being judged, which by itself was already freeing, but now you could walk around and talk to Rajani all you wanted because you wouldn’t look crazy while doing it with the robot replying back at you. And you’d never felt better. For once you could actually be yourself and not constantly worry about others seeing you.

Perhaps the reason why Rajani trying out her body was so underwhelming was because everything else was overwhelming. You’d never felt safer in your whole life!

Alphys, Undyne and MK started moving their things to the new house, starting with furniture, leaving the essentials to the very end. Undyne took advantage of her work vehicle for most of it but because she was doing it alone and they still had a lot of stuff, so it was taking longer than usual.

The fact that their things were still around meant you could still play Undyne’s piano when no one was home. So far you managed to remember the all the keys to ‘Hallelujah’ and were now recalling the ones for ‘And So It Goes’ from Billy Joel. You had purposefully learned the later all by yourself because the song had seemed perfect for a Kyoko and Ren AMV. You’d tried to get Daniel to sing it as a duet with you. You ended up recording the piano and your voice but he kept putting his side of the deal off even though he had agreed to help you. You eventually became too busy to worry about your AMVs but you still had passing thoughts filled with sadness. It had been the first time you went out of your way to record something for an AMV. That was how much it had meant to you back then. Then again Skip Beat had meant a lot to you even back then and still did.

To say you were a bit bitter at the whole thing back then was no exaggeration. You’ve gotten over it, though. And despite being connected in some way or form to Daniel, you still like the song because it reminds you more of Kyoko and Ren than him.

…

You suppose it might partially remind you of yourself in part too, after all that Daniel had put you through.

As the days went by you also saw as Undyne and Alphys got ready for both of their weddings. They decided to try both the monster festivities, as well as the christian ones. They both showed a genuine interest in the Japanese version of the ceremony as well but didn’t know that much about it and neither did you so they decided to wait a while for that one. They didn’t completely rule it out, though. In Undyne’s words, she would make sure to prove to Alphys that she ‘loved her in every single way possible’. You predicted a lot of future wedding invitations from those two in the future.

You still didn’t know much about monster weddings in general, and theirs in particular, aside from the date at which they wanted to get married. Thanksgiving Day had been the chosen date. It made sense. What better day to celebrate their union than one in which you were supposed to show your gratitude for all that you have?

You didn’t have Thanksgiving Day in Portugal. It was an American holiday, after all. But living in America you had been exposed to it a lot. You didn’t care much for it before. This was the first Thanksgiving Day you were actually looking forwards to.

For now, you weren’t feeling very cheery, though. You had asked for both tomorrow, and the following day, off. You always did every year. 

The 10th of November was more of a preparation for the journey. It was a three hours long trip on car after all. And since you had no car you would have to take public transportation, which would make it longer still. And with the sort of schedule you had, it was too late to leave after work. 

The 11th was the day that really mattered. That was the day you would visit your sister, after all. You couldn’t really take your pack with you there. Every year you had to leave them in your sleeping spots. Pets weren’t allowed in public transportation, after all. Not unless they were inside cages or something… and you didn’t have the stamina to drag that many cages with you. This time they would be safe, though. 

…

Still you wanted to at least take the dogs to see her. They must miss her terribly too. They used to be her dogs, after all. Of course, they missed her!

Sometimes you wondered if she even missed them, though. Did she even miss you?

Rajani whacked your face with the music sheets you had produced from one of the boxes in your room.

= **Stop thinking that! Of course, she does! Even if she doesn’t say it there’s no way she wouldn’t miss you!!!** =

Ever since she had gotten that body she had taken to whack you every time she sensed you having negative thoughts, which… was a lot of times, it seems.

You took the partitures back from her and placed them in the stand again.

“Who knows what she thinks! All I know is that I’m going to practice this one just one more time and then I’m done!” You said, placing the fingers in their respective keys.

But before you began playing ‘And So it Goes’ again you decided that if you were going to stop your piano practice session you ought to end it on style! Like, with a song you could actually play again. You were still shaky on way too many parts in ‘And So It Goes’ to play and sing it without growing frustrated.

You set your sheets to the side, piling them neatly on the lid. You knew all the keys to ‘Hallelujah’ by heart. You had learned it by hear so you didn’t need them. That did make it hard on you when you tried to transcribe it into paper, though.

With your left hand you clicked on the G key and followed it by pressing the B, D and G from the scale above and back to D, one at the time. Your left hand proceeded to press the #F and E and you followed with B, the E above that one, the G above that and back to that last E. You pressed the #F and then the G again, repeating the process once more.

You repeated that sequence a few more times before you began singing softly.

_~I heard there was a secret chord_  
That David played and it pleased the lord  
But you don’t really care for music, do ya?~ 

You crescendo-ed in the next verses, but still not too much.

_~Well it goes like this: the forth, the fifth_  
The minor fall and the major lift!  
The baffled king composing hallelujah!~ 

You lowered you voice back down to a softer tone for the chorus.

_~Hallejujah. Hallelujah.  
Hallejujah. Hallelu~~~jah.~_

_~Well, your faith was strong, but you needed proof_  
You saw her bathing on the roof  
Her beauty and the moon light over threw ya~~~!~ 

Crescendo once again, this time louder.

_~She tied you to a kitchen chair!_  
She broke you throne and she cut your hair!  
And from your lips she drew the hallelujah!~ 

Soft once more.

_~Hallejujah. Hallelujah.  
Hallejujah. Hallelu~~~jah.~_

This time you sang the ‘lujah’ of the last hallelujah one eighth above the typical notes. And proceeded to play the intermission, going slower and slower. The most emotional song was coming up and you decided to go all out. It was the one that meant something to you in the whole song. You finally moved the whole song one tone above and sang in fortissimo.

_~Well, maybe there’s a god above,_  
But all I’ve ever learned from love  
Is how to shoot somebody who’d out drew ya!~ 

_~And it’s not a cry that you hear at night!_  
It’s not someone who’s seen the LIGHT!!  
IT’S A COLD AND IT’S A BROKEN HALLELUJAH!!!~ 

_~Hallejujah. Hallelujah.  
Hallejujah. Hallelu~~~~-~_

_~Hallejujah. Hallelujah.  
Hallejujah. Hallelu~~~jah.~_

A small intermission for the piano going slower and slower again. You finally sang in a voice full of unshod tears.

_~ Hallejujah. Hallelu~~~jah.~_

You added a few decorative notes at the end before slowly putting your hands down in your lap. There was no love left in your life for a long time. Not aside from your love for your furry companions. 

Romantic love was a sham and you were unjustly shot down for reasons you still didn’t understand. It almost killed you. There truly was no god if one could hurt others with little to no remorse at all.

As for familial love? You haven’t seen the light in that one for a long, long time. Time doesn’t heal all wounds. That is just a lie. Some wounds stay. Some wounds leave you cold and broken on the inside forever.

Clapping interrupted your ‘gloom and doom’, as Rajani liked to call it.

You turned around so fast that you felt a painful twinge in your neck that left you clasping it with a curse.  
= **That seriously hurt!** = Rajani said. She was making the same exact motion of rubbing her neck as you.

“T-Toriel!?” You gasped at seeing the goat monster. She was clapping even though her eyes looked sad. You hadn’t even heard the door. You thought she’d still be buying the groceries or something. “I didn’t hear you come in!”

“didn’t know you could play piano.” Another voice added, making you jump. You turned to see Sans leaning over your music sheet. That explained how you hadn’t heard Toriel coming in. “this isn’t the one you were singing. the lyrics are different.”

Rajani hissed at him like a cat due to his sudden proximity.

“no need to throw a _hissy_ fit, slasher. ”

= **Fuck you, Cueball!** =

“I only play a little.” You said, trying to divert both of Raj’s and Sans’ attention away from their bickering. “And no, that isn’t the song I was playing.”

“what song was it?”

“Hallelujah, is it not?” You startle at Toriel’s intervention.

Had you seriously just forgotten she was there for a second to get so startled? How? You knew she was there! How could you have momentarily forgotten it?

“Yes. Yes, it is.” You reply.

And then, because her eyes were oh so sad you added.

“Did you know this song?” You reluctantly asked. You sensed something sad there.

“One of my children used to sing it a lot.” She said.

“Oh! Chara?” You asked. You doubted Flowey would have been exposed to the human world in any capacity to know that song while he still was Asriel. But… wasn’t Chara dead for a long, long, looong time now? Like enough not to be alive when the song was first created?

“No, not Chara.” She said sadly.

You looked at her in confusion. Should you ask? Should you not ask? You certainly didn’t want to rub salt in old wounds.

And you stood there frozen in awkwardness.

You felt Rajani deciding to intervene for your sake but Sans spoke before she could.

“there were kids before Frisk who fell down.” He said even more quietly than usual. “they… didn’t make it.”

“Oh!” Was all you could say. You didn’t know about that. How come no one mentioned that others fell into the underground?

“Little Ash was a sweet thing.” Toriel said. “They had wanted to be a singer. They told me they never would be able to. I didn’t really understand why. They kept telling me that they needed aid or used some sort of aid. I’m not sure, it was a long time.”

“Aid?”

“Yes, they kept saying something about that when I asked them why they thought they couldn’t be a singer.” She explained. “I still don’t quite know what they meant by that. But they did seem to have problems in their mouth. They had a lot of wounds there. Thrush, they called it. It made it hard for them to eat and they were so skinny. But if that was the cause, couldn’t it be solved? They also had a lot of diarrhea and walked weird. I tried to heal them. For a while they would be ok and then the symptoms would be back.”

“Wait…” You interrupted. “Did they mean AIDS perhaps?”

“I do not understand, my child. Is that not what I said?”

“Did they ever refer to is as HIV or even GRID, perhaps?”

“I… seem to recall something like that.” She said slowly in deep thinking.

“Oh, Tori!” You said, feeling sad for the goat lady. “I’m so sorry. There was nothing you could have done. We still haven’t found a cure for HIV yet.”

“What do you mean, there was nothing I could have done? A cure?” She asked, seemingly confused.

= **The kid died, right? There was nothing you could have done for them.** =

She seemed to stop on her tracks for a moment and them softly asked you.

“What exactly is HIV, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“It’s a virus. A very nasty one. There are several ways one can contract it. It can be via sex or blood. There are other less common ways like breastfeeding too. If a mother has HIV and doesn’t do the treatment she can transmit it to the child too. It breaks down all of the immune system and leaves a person vulnerable to a lot of diseases, infections and even cancer.” You tell her. “There are some medicines that can attenuate the symptoms and extend someone’s life but they’ll always have it. If you didn’t know what AIDS was, I doubt there was any medicine to be found underground.”

“So… if they had left the underground they could have lived longer?” She asked, trembling.

= **It depends, how long ago did they fall down?** =

“Around forty to fifty years back.” She said.

= **Then there wasn’t even any medicine to counter the effects yet. They only found out what AIDS was in the 80s. Your kid must have fallen down not long after that if they fell that long ago.** =

“So… regardless of what I could have done back then… my child would still have died?” She asked, trembling more, tears starting to form in her eyes.

“I’m sorry Toriel.” You said quietly.

= **There was nothing you could do, so don’t beat yourself up for not being able to heal them.** =

“I… don’t know what to think about this.” She admitted. “Of all the things, I didn’t expect for my Ash to have had such a deadly disease. I guess it all makes sense now.”

= **What do you mean?** = Rajani boldly asked the same question you didn’t want to ask out of respect.

“They were constantly saying that I shouldn’t get attached to them and that it was only a matter of time. They never did tell me they were dying, though. But some ways they used to act… They started saying they had come to terms with everything by the end. That they didn’t mind giving their soul to the monsters because we needed it more. And then they left…” Toriel started crying and Sans rushed to her side to comfort her.

You felt wholly inadequate as you stood there.

“It’s sort of a relief, in a way… knowing that they couldn’t have been saved either way. That I didn’t fail them so badly when I let them walk away. But it still hurts.” She finally said, after having calmed down a bit.

“Can you… tell me about Ash?” You ask hesitantly. You knew that sometimes it was good to talk about the good memories you had of your lost loved ones. You made sure to do it yourself unless it started straying to topics you didn't want to talk about.

“They had the voice of an angel. They sang a lot of songs. Some of them from a singer named Michael Jackson, if I’m recalling it correctly. But their favorite was Hallelujah. The version I remember had more verses, though.” She said.

“It was probably Leonard Cohen’s version. He was the original creator. I was singing my own version with some inspiration from Alexandra’s version of it.”

“There are several versions of the song?”

“Indeed.”

“I think my favorite would still be Ash’s.” She said. “They did have some trouble learning anything other than music. It seemed that nothing really stuck to their brain. But they kept trying. They loved writing songs. They constantly carried around that notebook of theirs filled to the brim with lyrics they wrote. They never sang them to me, though. They said that they needed to be fixed because they weren’t good enough yet. Ash was so cute with their eyes constantly curious and wide open. The lenses of their glasses did make them look way bigger, though, which only made them more adorable.”

“They must have been really cute.”

“When they realized I really meant to keep them as my own they cried. Apparently, their parents had abandoned them in the mountain. Now I understand that they might have felt troubled by their eventual death but that’s still the wrong thing to do!” Toriel said getting worked up.

“Indeed. They were still their child. One can’t just shirk away that sort of responsibility!”

“Most definitely!” 

“You gave them a second life for a bit, Toriel. And I’m sure they loved every second of it.” You told her.

“Thank you, my child.” She said, calming down from her rage. “I hope they liked it too.”

“Looking at Frisk I can assure you it was way more than that.”

She blushed prettily and stayed silent for a moment.

“Would you mind playing it again?” She asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Er… sure!” You didn’t really like to play in public. You were pretty sure you were going to make mistakes.

You repeated the song. This time Toriel sang along with you. You purposefully extended the piano and didn’t go up a tone to match the original version. You let Toriel sing by herself the other verses you weren’t that familiar with.

There was so much feeling in her voice that by the end you were missing the right keys because your eyes were so blurry.

“Thank you, Miranda.” She said once the song was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll get more fallen children details with the next chapter as well as some Sans time (Including a Sans POV ;P)


	40. Chapter 39: Conflicted Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans tells us about the fallen children and fucks up his own plan (you'll see ;P)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you probably noticed, this work is now a part of a series. That is because in these past six weeks, in expectation to this chapter today, i've been alternating between writing for this fic and writing a collection of side stories named 'The Fallen Ones' which details the lives of the fallen children. In this chapter we have some tidbits but in 'The Fallen Ones' our POV will be from the children's perspective. 
> 
> Now... you know I'm always writing a few chapters ahead, right. I can tell you that, starting from the next chapter this fic is going through a roller coaster of emotions. So I got pretty worn out writing that, together with writing the super angsty side stories XC eesh!
> 
> Now I still have the request from HellShots to write before I go on vacation... -_- I'ma go rest a bit first.
> 
> Oh, and don't forget to comment on the stories in the new fic. I didn't really have much time to edit them to acceptable levels so please do point out any discrepancies I might have committed.

While you both were singing, Sans had put the groceries away, proving he wasn’t as lazy as everyone claimed. That saved Toriel from having to do it herself. She left to the kitchen to start on the dinner and you sat next to Sans on the couch.

“thanks.” He said. “it was nice of you to do that for her.”

“Why are you thanking me? I just did what anyone would do in this situation. If anything, you comforted her far more than I did. You even took care of the foodstuff and all that” You said.

“not many would be as understanding as you, though.”

“If you say so…” You said feeling awkward at the whole ordeal. Genuine compliments always left you feeling silly. Instead you decided to focus on something else. “Sans… what did she mean with the soul thing?”

“…”

“Sans?”

“i figured this question would pop up at some point.” He said, rubbing the bone between his eye sockets.

“What?” You ask feeling confused. Rajani mirrored your confusion too but didn’t say anything.

“do you know how the monsters got out from the underground?” He asked.

= **The news said that Frisk broke the barrier. As in they were the last piece needed for the barrier to break. Some prophecy monsters had or something.** =

“that’s the truth, except that it’s only part of it.”

“And the offering up the soul thingy being the other part?”

“yes.”

“Can you tell me?”

“supposedly, i shouldn’t do it.” He said. “but you have an uncanny way with people to get all of our secrets out of us.” That comment confused you but you kept your focus on him. “might as well be the one to say it. you just can’t repeat it outside of these walls, ok?”

He was serious. As serious as death. You probably should nope the heck away from that conversation… but you were always too curious for your own good.

“Ok” You said.

“that goes for you too, slasher!”

= **Argh! Fine. I agree to your 'terms and conditions'!** =

“you know that seven mages joined together to erect the barrier, right?”

= **Yeah?** =

“monsters couldn’t cross it either way and humans could only cross it when walking in but couldn’t walk out. really, the only way to cross the barrier freely was with the fusion that asriel and chara attempted. and then there was the way to break the barrier.”

“There was a way to break the barrier?” You asked, feeling surprised. If they had one why hadn’t they used it before?

“yep.” Sans confirmed. “since seven mages had created the barrier then seven human souls were needed to break it.”

“… Oh!” Now you saw where the whole soul thing came into play.

“before their kids had been killed, the king and queen tried several more peaceful methods to break it. all of them failed. after they died… asgore didn’t care much for peace for a long time. there were rumors of another human falling from above eventually. He said he was going to reap the soul that’s when toriel left him. he was supposed to take the soul and cross the barrier, from what i heard, but he decided to quietly collect the souls of humans that fell instead.”

= **Why the change of plan?** =

“after seeing his children die because they went alone he couldn’t risk leaving monsterkind without the only ruler they still had, since tori was nowhere to be found. there was no telling what was beyond the barrier at that time.”

“… Makes sense but… why do I sense there’s more to that story?”

“the human was a kid, not much unlike his children. he couldn’t possibly bring himself to absorb their soul, even if he felt confident enough to charge ahead through the barrier by himself.”

“Oh!”

= **Wait, how do you know all this. Just Ash alone was from 40 years ago so the first after Chara must be older than that. Plus, Papyrus told me your age so I know for sure you aren’t old enough for either of those occasions. Seems suspicious…** = Rajani interrupted.

“i’m the appointed judge presiding over all of the underground. i’m privy to much information other people couldn’t even begin to dream about.”

Rajani didn’t comment, not wanting to get off topic just yet.

“What happened next?” You asked to keep the story flowing.

“kids. it was always kids falling down. i’m going to tell ya, though, not all of them were nice. but they were still kids none the less. that messed a whole lot with fluffybuns' head. and the monsters themselves weren’t helping at all.” Sans said with a sigh. “it was a mistake on asgore’s part to declare war on all humans so publically. it was understandable, but still a mistake. his speech moved the crowds a little too much. he did try to find more peaceful solutions later on. i can’t tell you about those, though. i’m already going on a _limb_ , here.” He held out his forearm floppily from his arm just for the sake of the pun. 

You smiled a bit, though what he was telling you was saddening.

= **This is not the time for your silly antics. You are telling a serious story, here!** = Rajani said, though you knew that she was secretly amused by it.

“tough crowd, today.” He joked for a bit. Then, with a shrug, he returned to his ‘sort of’ narration. “but as i was saying, the people were roaring for justice to prevail over the death of their prince and angel. it left asgore with very few options to choose from. and when the ‘peaceful solutions’ failed he had no other choice. As a king, his duty is to his people, after all, and they had spoken loud and clear. the fact that he actually tried to fix the mistake his words caused is one of the few reasons tori even considered giving him a second chance in the first place.” He paused. “that being said… he still killed some of the six kids.”

You tried to wrap your head around that fact. You couldn’t really picture the kind king do anything of the sort… and then you remembered the first night you spent there officially after revealing Rajani to them. Asgore had been up as well. He was having trouble sleeping. You hadn’t paid much attention to it back then but looking bat he did look like he wasn’t getting any sleep.

“I… can’t even process this right now.” You admitted. “I mean, I sort of guessed he had to kill humans and all that but… I never expected for them to be kids.”

“some of them actually came to him willingly, like the kid tori just talked about. i still hadn’t been born back then, like slasher over there pointed out, but asgore told me once about it. they came willingly and offered themselves up. asgore still had to kill them to get the soul out, though.”

= **Ash is one kid. What about the others?** = Rajani asked.

“tori would be better suited to tell you about them herself but, for obvious reasons, i don’t want you to ask her.” Sans said. “welp! guess my summary of each will have to do.” He paused to look towards the kitchen to see if Toriel was still there before turning back to you. “so… i was only alive for the last three kids before frisk. my details over the first three are murky at best and mostly came from my parents and from asgore whenever he needed a shoulder to lean on. i do know the names because of tori, though. and, of course, the soul traits. from what i know, Chara fell down around in 1640-something. a lot of time went by before another kid fell. like a lot of time. tori places the next kid at about in the 1770s or something close.”

= **That’s… surely a lot.** = Rajani commented.

“tori said the kid’s name was brook and they were the soul of patience.” Sans said and you tried to recall which color was that one. He noticed. “it’s the cyan one. from what tori told me, the kid was an indian child that some family tried to force into being ‘civilized’ and forced them to wear frilly dresses that were too tight and shoes that were too stifling and forbid them from acting the way they liked to. they used to love nature and running. the family that was trying to force them into acting ‘civilized’ was the one who was responsible for their real family’s deaths. the only thing that the kid managed to keep from their true family was a toy knife their father had given them. They waited for the perfect moment to run away, when the family was convinced she‘d given into their rules and bolted as soon as they let their guards down. they had disposed of most of their clothes when they fell down in the ruins. they ended up leaving tori because they were the curious sort and wanted to explore more of the underground and didn’t like that tori had forbid them from going further into the cave that leads to all of the underground. they had a stubborn streak, but such it the way with 8 year-olds, i guess. they left the ribbon and the toy knife behind before leaving but apparently an annoying dog stole them from tori. this was all that tori told me about them.”

“And after they left the ruins?” You ask.

“they were the first kid asgore had to kill. they hadn’t hurt any monsters but they had threatened them enough for them to stay away. they fought asgore with all they had but ended up dying and that is that. after killing them asgore felt a lot of remorse. this one death is the one he talks about the most, actually.”

“I see.” You say. “Please continue.”

“next was a kid named Taylor and they had the soul of justice. that’s the yellow one, by the way.” Sans explained. “tori thinks they fell down in the 1830s. according to her they had the most awful story of them. they had been 13 years old when they fell and were the kid with the most convoluted story of the bunch. apparently they were the child of a slave woman and her owner and was destined to be a slave on a ranch. after their mother died from a beating they somehow managed to get a hold of a revolver killed their owner and escaped when they were still ten. to sum up a lot on their misfortunes, they basically had to be constantly on the run from slavers wanting to bring him to justice. ironic, really, since that was his soul trait. They ended up running to an indian reservation. apparently mount ebbot was located in one back then and since the Indians knew of a legend about monsters in the underground and where… lets say… pretty religious? yeah, that works for what I want. they didn’t want anyone getting close to the mountain inside their reservation, which is why so few people fell. only outsiders ever fell into the mountain. and that kid was no exception. the indian reservation was in a tough spot with the non-indians so a runaway slave was serious business. they wanted to capture them and kick them out or deliver them to the slavers in exchange for produce. the kid ran and they fell down.”

= **I was wondering why there were so few people falling down in such a long timeframe. It makes sense now.** = Was all Rajani had to say.

“i had always wondered about that too until we got out and I learned what indian reservations where. but as i was saying, that kid spent practically no time with tori. As soon as they realized that there were monsters all around them they ran away as fast as they could and dashed past her just as fast. The only reason she even got to learn their name and backstory is because they distracted her with small talk long enough. they had searched all of the ruins and knew by listening to conversations from monsters that there was more to the underground than them. probably wanting to find a way out of the underground, if you ask me. they realized that the way out was on tori’s house and that was when they distracted her for as long as it took them to figure out where in her house was the exit.” Sans continued. “outside of the ruins they killed a fair amount of monsters. true, they had attacked them first but they still did it. they ended up being killed in the garbage dump in waterfall and had their soul delivered to asgore posthaste. the monster who did it is long dusted now.”

“Poor kid. He only wanted to be free.” You commented.

“the problem was that monsters wanted to be free too. and even if he had lived he still wouldn’t have been able to escape without getting the soul of a boss monster to do so.” yet another thing you would have to ask about. “next was ash, but you already know their story. they asked to meet asgore and they met him and gerson, asgore’s closest friend, in the throne room. Asgore killed them as mercifully as possible. didn’t make him feel any less guilty, though. i supposed that some time afterwards the reservation was disbanded or something because people started falling more frequently.”

You and Rajani nodded to show that you understood so far.

“then… integrity fell down.” He said with a low growl in his voice. His eyelights were completely gone too.

= **Whoa! Hey, chill out, Cueball! You’re freaking Miranda out!** =

His eyelights returned though they were still a bit hazy.

“sorry. kinda got worked up there. the integrity human. their name was jules and they were a 15 year old that fell down 18 years ago.” Oh, so Sans must have met them. “according to tori they were really messed up up here.” He knocked on his own noggin. “they didn’t have any discernible past, really. maybe they did tell tori the truth at some point, but they told her so many different versions that it’s impossible to be sure which one was real. according to them, they either were the descendent of a princess diana that was fleeing for their life as they danced to get some money, the attraction of a freak show where they contorted into several positions with ease but was abused by their father, or even that they were a lab experiment to replace the real jules because they had died and their rich parent wanted their offspring back. tori thinks that, given their physical condition, the second one might have been the true story. either way it doesn’t matter to me. they were still a psycho.” Wow, what had that kid done to him? “even tori isn’t sure how they managed to escape her but once they got out of the ruins they started having spurts of insanity where they thought they were a part of a ballet named ‘odette’ or something. they also kept saying they needed to kill the black swan before it killed them. Thing was, the black swan apparently took form of many monsters in her mind. and when she thought someone was the black swan she killed them without mercy. the only monster she wouldn’t kill for sure were children. She didn’t mind killing their parents in front of them though. that was a soul asgore didn’t mind reaping all that much. she died in waterfall. It still haunts him, but he knows that they would have kept killing people if he hadn’t come to get them in the first place. what really messed him up was that they called him ‘toriel’ just before dying. Back then he didn’t even know if tori was still alive or not, so he didn’t know if that was just a coincidence of a half delusional mind or if they had actually met tori and, if so, if they had left her alive or not.”

“Poor Asgore!” You said. You also felt sorry for Jules. Being mentally insane in a place where there was no one who could help them manage their mental condition in any capacity had left them no other choice but to lash out after all. Still… Sans’ apparent hatred to them kept you from voicing that pity.

“yeah.” Sans agreed. “next one was casey, the soul of kindness. they were 5 years old and managed to escape some seriously fucked up people, according to tori. They said that those people touched them in places they had been told not to let anyone touch and had hurt them in those places. They sometimes said they only wanted to play house and they were the ‘mommy’. they even gave them an apron to wear. The kid took one of the frying pans in the set and managed to whack one of them with it before escaping and running to the woods. they fell five years after integrity. They left tori in the middle of the night and she never knew why. i was fifteen at the time that i met them. i was helping Alphys out in the lab at the time. after integrity... let’s just say i wasn’t too fond of humans but they had no lv. they had exp, though, so i let them go with a warning. i regret it now. i had no idea what had been done to them and judged them just because they were human. the leader of the royal guard at the time caught them and i heard that, once he told them what was going on in the underground and what we needed, they offered up their soul willingly. asgore never got to meet that one and thank god for that. they seemed too nice for him to be able to bear killing them.”

= **Was it really just out of kindness? or was it also because, after being used like a sex toy for god knows how long they felt their worth was gone and that their soul was the only good thing left of them?** =

“i wouldn’t know, pall.”

“And the last one?” You asked, though, considering how horrid the stories had been so far you doubted you really wanted to listen.

“rowan. they were the soul of bravery.” There was a slight sneer on sans face with that name too. “they didn’t actually fall down in the ruins but they spent enough time on the underground for me to know about them some. they fell down six years ago and were 12 years old. They stuck around for a few months. In the beginning, they spent their days picking up fights, but seemed harmless. then monsters started to disappear. at first only the ones we wouldn’t easily miss because they spent a lot of time alone or closed in inside their homes. then others. i realized they were going for my brother at some point. let’s just say they had a change of _heart_. ” Sans chuckled humorlessly. “someone had sensed there was some _fin fishy_ in the situation. It helps that one of the monsters going missing was from waterfall too. ”

“Undyne?”

“yup.”

You pondered for a bit. So many children… Two had given their souls willingly: one because they had come to terms with their mortality; the other because they felt worthless. Two only wanted to be free: one by standing their ground, refusing to kill; the other by killing those who stood in their way before they killed them. Two who killed with abandon: one out of madness; the other for reasons unknown. And in the other side the whole underground. People who had once seen the sky and people who only knew of it from stories. People who had lost their hope of going up top and people who hoped for the death of a human to bring them closer to their freedom. 

You knew the conditions the monsters had faced by the end. They were crowded, there was overpopulation for the amount of space available, food was getting scarce and thefts were starting to be common occurrence due to poverty. Not that monsters were particularly lacking in funds -you knew for a fact that they used gold as currency- but because the stuff they really needed was getting more and more expensive because there was so little of it, to the point that gold was starting to not be enough.

You could understand Asgore’s misguided anger leading him to make a promise to his people. You could understand all of his people had put so much responsibility on him too keep him from backing out. You could understand the desperation. And you could understand most of the kids’ actions. Perhaps you couldn’t understand Rowan’s actions at all, and Jules was so out of it that she didn’t really count, but you understood everyone else. 

A part of you wanted to curl in disgust because, no matter how desperate, Asgore’s people should have seen a child instead of a coupon out of the underground. Heck they could have let the first few kids grow into adulthood quite easily and only harvest their souls on their death beds!

But as revolted as you were with that… you could understand where everyone was coming from. The whole thing was a shitty situation from the start! Monsters shouldn’t have been locked in the first place!

You noticed Sans shifting a bit in his side of the couch. He seemed to be waiting for your reaction.

“This is a lot to take in…” You say at last just to break the awkward silence. “I mean… I can understand why! Don’t doubt that! I do! It’s just… they were kids! All of them where!”

“i know.” He said, hunching a bit as if bracing for impact.

“I guess… I’ll just have to accept it just as it is.”

“… what?”

You stare fixedly at your hands in your lap as you try to explain your logic.

“It’s in the past. Regardless of what I feel it can’t be changed. Besides, it isn’t as if humans haven’t done worse during wars. During one of the world war Japan conquered Korea and forced the Korean women to serve as whores for their soldiers but that doesn’t mean I’m going to boycott everything Japanese. Heck, even the Portuguese did some pretty awful things during the colonial wars and we are some of the tamer countries out there! Sure, it messes me up knowing that the six humans were all kids but… dwelling won’t do anything. And while I could demand justice, nothing that I could come up with would trump over the way Asgore is already punishing himself. He’s already in pain over what he did and, right now, monsterkind needs him.” Now that you knew, the king’s pain became so obvious.  
You finally look up at Sans. All your thoughts come to an alt as you notice his eyelights. For a second they had looked… upside-down heart shaped? They looked normal now, though.

“you’re incredible…” He said and you flushed at the unexpected and genuine compliment.

“W-What!?”

“well, you are! any other human would have jumped at the opportunity to imprison asgore. you guys are pretty predictable when it comes to children, you know? but you? you take a moment to calm yourself down and think of all of the parties involved and their motivations, not just the immediate issue.”

“W-w-w-well…” You really couldn’t say any more than that, far too flustered to get anything out and also because you couldn’t argue with his logic on that one point.

“just face it, brownie, you are an amazing person.” He said and you felt a bit irked at the nickname.

“Shut up, Skelly Bear!” You said, still flustered.

He merely chuckled with a very pleased expression.

= **Why did you tell us all this, though. Perhaps Miranda is the type to think of things carefully, but what’s to say we won’t tell someone else and they do the ‘predictable thing’ that she didn’t do?** = Rajani asked, dampening a bit the flustered mood.

“eh, i trust brownie. i know i can count on her.”

“Y-you do!?” You ask, reigniting the fluster mode. “Why? I’m just…” You pause, not having the words to describe your own self.

“just what?” He asks.

“J-just… me!” A person that is pathetic and worthless and should have died years ago. Just as you thought that, Rajani discretely whacked your head with her foot as she floated by your head, forcing your head out of those thoughts.

“yes, you are just you. and just you is an amazing person that is kind to all those around her and capable of understanding what others need even without them telling her. you have held me and MK through nightmares, you have saved my brother from dying, you kept an organization from offing all of us, you helped distract Alphys just for Undyne’s sake, even after all the stuff she put you through, you read to me and paps, you think of your pets as family, you are an amazing singer, you like my jokes, you danced weird just so that i would feel comfortable enough to join you, you took notice of flowey not feeling too great and helped him even with him being rude to you… i could go on, you know?”

“N-n-n-n-no… t-that’s alright…” You said and your face felt like it was at the temperature of a supernova.

How could anyone think so highly of you? Surely, he must be joking or messing around with you… but no. He looks extremely earnest about his words. But how can they be true?

“skeleton got your tongue, brownie?” He asked at you flustered silence.

You tried to come up with a reply but, upon seeing his teasing smirk you just couldn’t. Instead you opted to bury your face in his chest while grumbling ‘Stahp! This is all your fault!’.

He had the nerve to chuckle at you.

_**How can you still pretend to not understand what’s going on…**_ Rajani offhandedly commented inside your mind. You chose to ignore her.

Sans patted the back of your head and you kept hiding your face in his shirt… which… looking back… wasn’t really that good of an idea. You should have just run off or something, now you still would have to face him when you pulled your head out of the cotton material. Darts!

Your heard Rajani sigh resignedly and understood she was willing to save you just this once from further embarrassment.

= **I understand your reaction to the Bravery kid… Rowan, was it? But about Integrity… What happened?** =

Wow, Rajani really went for the kill, didn’t she?

The shift in Sans attitude was noticeable, even with you having your face shoved against his ribcage. You braved a peek up to his face only to see the strained expression fixed there. You immediately pulled back to get a better look at him as you remembered his words about the Jules person.

He said they were crazy with delusions of being Odette and that a black swan was going to kill her so he had to do it first. You didn’t quite remember the story of The Swan Lake, but you were pretty sure Odette died because the prince declared his love to the black swan thinking it was her, not because the black swan killed her herself. But that was beside the point. What really mattered is that he told you that Jules would kill all those she thought were the black swan immediately. 

Sometimes… 

Sometimes even killing parents in front of their children… !! He would have been ten and Papyrus four back then.

He didn’t speak but he didn’t need to. You pulled him into your arms as hugged him as hard as you could. Apparently, that surprised him greatly as he squirmed a bit with a few strangled noised before finally settling down.

“not that I’m complaining but… what’s with the hug?” He asked.

“Was Papyrus there when it happened?” You asked in turn. 

Sans stiffened in your hold. Rajani wasn’t surprised by this unexpected development in his past. She had heard your thought process loud and clear. 

“no… he wasn’t.” Was Sans’ quiet reply and you cuddled him even more, petting the back of his skull. 

He hummed at that gesture, sounding almost like a purr and loosely held you back. As he did so you felt even more protective over him than before. Poor Skelly Bear. You kissed his temple as a way to offer up comfort and he jumped back with and adorable squeak, face all blue, holding his head on the same spot you had kissed him. You couldn’t help but giggle at how adorable he was being. And this was a good as a time as it could get to distract him out of those negative thoughts too.

“What’s the matter, Skelly Bear? Did Rajani eat your ‘raspberry’ after all?” You asked him teasingly with a wink.

What followed was you flustering your skeleton friend even more with some creative double entendres.

 

\--Sans’ POV—

 

God, this wasn’t just a crush, was it? He was falling, and falling fast. 

He hadn’t been that surprised Miranda had picked up on Tori’s slip about the souls. She’d proved in several occasions that she was pretty smart, after all. So, when she asked about the subject he had been more than ready to divert her away from the topic. But… his feelings just had to get in the way, hadn’t they?

He’d wanted to put an end to his silly little crush on her. He thought that, perhaps… if he saw her reaction the knowledge he and the royal family had been trying to keep secret ever since monsters had come out of the underground… perhaps his oxytocin addled brain would finally realize that she was just a person like all the others and that there was no need for it to freak out over every single time she’d look his way.

To see a regular person that was just a friend. That was what he’d wanted.

Miranda had acted disturbed by the knowledge but then calmed herself down and put the knowledge behind her as something that couldn’t be changed. And she’d even noticed the guilt trip Asgore was going through!

Had she acted like an enraged justice seeker he would have simply calmed her down and explained to her why she shouldn’t seek her vengeance on the tall goat monster and then they could both remain as friends just like before. Getting angry was a sensible reaction, after all. He was already friends with people that did not so sensible things.

Had she acted like none of it bothered, though, that would have bothered _him_ instead. The lack of empathy over the loss of such young children was certainly not a good sign.

But no, she hadn’t done either of those. In fact, she had walked that fine line that disarmed him like the most skilled and experienced tightrope artist. That fine line was one he had no defenses against.   
For a small moment, he was so mesmerized by her that he must have looked down right dumb. He managed to snap out of it just as she looked up.

There was no denying it any more. Miranda wasn’t just a crush. He was falling in love with her. Just as he had managed to accept the fact that he had a crush to deal with and try to eradicate, he just had to go a step beyond and actually fall for her. And he had even been the one setting himself up to realize what was happening at the worst possible moment. 

She and Slasher still had questions so he couldn’t escape to muddle on his feelings on his own lonesome. He had to do it in front of her instead. He distracted her with compliments. She was so easily flustered with the simplest of compliments and it was adorable. He might have gone a bit too far with them, though, as she seemed momentarily unable to function. He didn’t regret it in the least. How could he? She hid her face in his chest. SHE HID HER CUTE BLUSHED FACE IN HIS CHEST!

…

He just wanted to hold her there but at the same time his mind was buzzing with the fact that, despite his attempts at convincing himself to not fall for her, he still did so anyway.

Rajani indirectly helped him out, in a way… if reminding a person of their mother’s death was the perfect way to divert one’s mind from the mess of feelings dazing them.  
Miranda seemed to understand what had happened in his past, even without him telling her. He had always found it hard to talk about that. Even with Papyrus and _he_ had the right to know about it some. He always used excuses of wanting to keep his brother pure as a reason for not doing it. But in fact, he was just a weakling that couldn’t even begin to put into word all that he had seen that day. Thank god Papyrus wasn’t there.

Integrity would have killed him. If he hadn’t been a child he was sure they would have killed him. Looking back, he guessed only their soul’s integrity prevented them from doing it, even with the madness running rampant. But there was no denying that, in the time frame of his mother disintegrating into dust and Integrity looking at him, they had convinced themselves that ‘black swan’ had escaped to his body before realizing he was just a kid.

Miranda’s kiss brought him out of those dark ponderings. Her lips were so soft and warm on his temple… he couldn’t help but crave more. He wasn’t sure what of that more he wanted. It wasn’t a sexual reaction at all. He just wanted more… more hugs, more chaste kisses… Just more.

And then the teasing started and he was too distracted by trying to keep control of his blush to focus on either his traumatic past or his current problems with his feelings.

…

God, these feelings were only going to get worse, weren’t they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM TIREDDDD!!!!!!! 
> 
> *collapses in front of computer with swirls instead of eyes.
> 
> Next chapter starts the feels trip.


	41. Chapter 40: Are You Searching For Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's starts off normal enough. Just another day like all others... and then the metaphorical shit hits the metaphorical fan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Attention: there will be a somewhat explicit scene in the flashback Miranda experiences (I say 'somewhat' because I totally could have gone into more gory details but decided not to since it didn't fit the overall ambiance of the story). I wrote it in between two hr tags in html  
> For reference they look like this (for those that have no idea what a hr tag is because HTML)
> 
> * * *
> 
> see?
> 
> aside from that enjoy. see you at the end notes

With Sans’ consent, you told Papyrus of your assumption about their mother. Sans had never confirmed or denied and you made sure to stress that point to the younger brother, but you were pretty sure of your deductions.

The younger skeleton took the news a bit hard, but not by much. You guessed a part of him must have assumed that it had been a fallen human at some point but decided not to think about it too much, especially after meeting other humans -though he hadn’t known that Rowan and Casey where humans at first, he just thought they were weirdly shaped monsters-.

You spent some time with him and the kids watching some more Avatar episodes as you waited for dinner. Sans went to his room for some reason. Perhaps because such a sensitive topic was broached? But that didn’t invalidate that he had spent the last week hiding out in his room most of the time. Before, the reason used to be obvious -what, with the dinofish duo shipping the two of you so aggressively?- but now you really couldn’t understand why. Those two where now far too deep in their hasty wedding planning to take much notice of their ships lately.

Somehow the thought that he might have been avoiding you in particular stung but you were pretty it couldn’t have anything to do with you… could it?

Nah, it definitely had nothing to do with you. You weren’t the center of anyone’s universe other than Rajani’s and your own. He was probably freaking out over something (or someone if Toriel was involved) else. You had reassured him you would keep what he told you about the six souls a secret so that wasn’t an issue, and you’d only told Papyrus about their mother with his permission.

Nah, it definitely had nothing to do with you. 

Undyne arrived late from her job and even Asgore managed to get home before her. MK immediately tackled his now mother, that he still absolutely idolized, and dragged her to the TV to watch some episodes of Avatar.

Alphys was the last one to arrive and went directly to talk to Asgore about something of importance. You actively avoided listening to them but… after some whispered conversations you’d unintentionally overheard them and were pretty sure what those conversations were about. You did hear Sans’ voice join the conversation at some point, further proving that he must be really smart after all, if he was discussing the antimatter bomb…

Like you said, you preferred to avoid listening to them. You knew why they were worried about it. Heck, you were still worried! But… you didn’t really like thinking about that pointless bloodbath unless utterly necessary.

As soon as Alphys, Asgore and Sans were done with their conversation, Toriel called everyone for dinner, which must have meant they had been talking about it in her presence. It made sense if they did. Even if she was divorced from Asgore, she still had a bearing on her people’s needs, after all.

You all sat down for dinner. You had been expecting a bit of heartwarming small talk. What you didn’t expect was for anyone to bring up your ‘vacation days’.

“So, punk! I heard from Nedd that you are going to have some vacation days starting tomorrow? Didn’t you just come out of vacation?” Undyne asked.

You sighed as Rajani’s bot sat down on the table in case she had to take you over.

“Yeah, I did. Those were a bit out of the ordinary since we aren’t usually that busy and working overtime. Basically, we worked far more hours than we should have, hence why we had these extra vacation days.

“Oh, I know that. I’m just curious why you take two days off every year around this time? Shouldn’t you have taken the chance of doing so together with the other vacations instead of having a few work days in between?”

“The scheduled extra vacation days were set for way too early for what I really needed. I could have asked for mine to be moved closer to my preferred date but, since everyone else was going to take the extra vacation days just as they had been scheduled, it meant I would basically be on the workplace all alone and animating a video for a client is a team work. Sure, I could animate a video on my own just fine, but not only would it take longer, it might also not be up to par with what the client wants, especially since I’m not in charge of speaking with the client directly. All in all, it would be a hassle that I’d rather avoid.”

“Where are you going, Mirandy?” Firsk asked, curious.

“I… just… visiting someone.”

“Really? Who?” MK asked, his interest perking up, Flowey also seemed just as interested.

“… my sister.” You quietly admitted and hoped no more questions would be asked.

“THE ONE YOU CLAIM IS SUPER COOL?” Papyrus asks.

“The one and only.” You confirm.

“Can we go visit her too? I really want to meet her.” Frisk said pleadingly.

“…sorry, Friskroll. I am going alone.” 

“Why? Won’t it be lonely? Besides, I’m sure she would like more people visiting her!”

“Don’t you have classes tomorrow and the day after?” You deflect.

“But…” Frisk made the glittersparkling puppy dog eyes you had even seen on them.

“You really mustn’t miss class, Frisk. You have already missed so many lessons while helping with the embassy. I will not allow you to miss any more.” Toriel insisted.

Frisk turned their full-blast puppy dog eyes at her and you saw her starting to waver.

“…Well… if it’s just-…”

= **Can’t you take a no, kid? Mir already said she’s going alone, didn’t she? Please respect her needs just this once.** = Rajani said, though it came of just the tiniest bit harsh that it raised some brows on those around. = **What? I said please!** =

You petted Rajbot’s head soothingly.

“I’m sorry about Rajani’s harshness but in this she is right. I need to go alone. Please understand.” You asked of them monsters and human around you.

“Can you at least tell us why, my child?” Toriel asked back.

“It’s… complicated. I know you are probably worried but… “

“Is your sister racist or something?” Flowey asked bluntly and you couldn’t help but laugh sadly at that.

“Dunno. She never said anything about it. She probably isn’t, though.” You said, trying to find a way out of talking about your sister. “By the way, Papyrus, you have your interview tomorrow, don’t you?”

“ERM… INDEED, SKINNY HUMAN! I’LL BE MEETING THEM IN THE MORNING!” He said, though he hesitated on letting you change the subject.

“Do you know when you’ll have the results of your interview?” You asked eagerly.

“THEY TOLD ME THEY DIDN’T HAVE MANY PEOPLE TO CHOSE FROM SO I WOULD PROBABLY BE TOLD RIGHT AWAY IF THEY WOULD TAKE ME IN OR NOT.”

= **That’s cool. It means we’ll get to know the results before going to visit our sis!** =

“By the way… I’m leaving Rajbot here. Rajani wants to test from how far away the connection she has with it works. Anyone wants to babysit Rajbot in case she suddenly disconnects?” You asked.

The following conversation revolved around who would be available for robot sitting for one and a half days, give or take. No consensus was actually reached since everyone had different schedules but you didn’t really mind since it had distracted the others from your sister’s issue.

When night time came you followed the usual motions for getting ready for bed… except that, after reading to Papyrus with Sans help -he was now going through book 6- you decided to sit down in the living room’s couch. 

You assumed Sans would have gone to bed like he had taken to do lately so you took out your cellphone and plugged in the earbuds. You couldn’t help but want to listen to depressing songs when it came to this time of the year. Mostly you just listened to Red’s ‘Hymn for the Missing’ in a loop and tried not to cry, though. Perhaps you were just being a massive masochist, but still…

Rajani didn’t really like when you were feeling this way but preferred when you used the sad songs as means to cope than focus on your negative feelings about yourself. She flew her robot body to the charging station, never leaving you completely. In your mental landscape, she sat next to you on a cloud and curled into you.

 _ **It’ll be okay, Mir. I’ll be with you. It won’t hurt as much this time, I’m sure!**_ She said and you took comfort in her presence. She slowly drifted off into sleep as you continued to listen and quietly sing to the song.

You aren’t quite sure how you became aware of it and why you didn’t freak out, but you realized that you were no longer alone. Rajani was so out of it she didn’t notice and you kept singing to her until the lyrics part of the song was over and she was fast asleep.

You turned around and saw Sans leaning over the back off the couch to look at you.

“What are you still doing up?” you ask pulling one of the earbuds out so that you can hear him.

“could ask you the same thing.” Sans shot back. “don’t you have a full day tomorrow?”

“I only leave after lunch so… not really?” You said. “Don’t you have to go to bed early, though? You’ve been going to bed really early whenever you can lately. It’s good that you are getting some very much needed rest.” You shot back. You had managed to leave the accusation and most of the bitterness out of your reply but a tiny bit was still present.

It made you wonder. Why where you even bitter about it. It’s not like he was avoiding you, right? If he was going to bed early it had nothing to do with you… right?

He seemed a bit guilty about your reply.

“…not today.” He said.

You sighed in resignation.

“What do you really want, Sans?” You asked.

“nothing really. just checking up on you. you weren’t acting as usual during dinner.”

“Are you going to ask to see my sister too?” You ask a bit bitterly.

“no, just…” And he fell into silence.

Shame on you, using the skeleton as a verbal punching bag for a situation he had no idea about. Really, what were you doing!? He was just worried about you and you just lash at him!?

You sighed again.

“It’s not something I want to explain unless extremely necessary. If I told you in the most basic of ways why you can’t see her you would all just ask about how she wound up that way and that would lead to further questions that… The core problem of the whole thing is not something I want to talk about.” You said.

“why?”

“Tell me something… do you want to talk about your nightmares?” You ask.

“w-what? no!”

“I don’t know what your nightmares are about but the mere fact that you don’t want to talk about them should give you an inkling of why I don’t want to talk about this issue.”

More silence.

Sans popped from behind the couch to sit next to you.

“You could have just walked around the couch instead of teleporting, you lazybones!” You commented.

“and here I thought I was skelly bear.”

“Yup, a Skelly Bear with an extreme case of Bone-idle-ittus.” He snorted and you allowed yourself to smile as the looping song started again.

“sure am.” Sans confirmed.

“By the way… You mentioned briefly that you were the judge of the underground. What exactly does that mean?” You asked.

You had been curious about it ever since he’d mentioned it and had never got the chance to ask.

“oh, that. …when did I mention that anyway?” He said seeming confused.

“You might have mentioned it when Raj asked why you knew all that stuff about all of the souls and you said you were privy to a lot of information because of your position.” You told him. “I guess you really did only mentioned it briefly enough not to really keep it that much in mind.”

“oh, right! i remember now.”

“So? Tell me about it!”

“there’s… not much to tell.”

“Man, it’s harder to pry a straight answer from you than a rotten tooth from a lion with a tooth ache without a trank gun!” You comment, making him chuckle lightly at the imagery. “So, how did you get selected as a judge in the first place?”

“…” He seemed to pull inwards for a bit, sockets gone almost dark before he looked up at you again. “you ‘member the scientist no one seems to recall?”

“The one who figured out that thing about the souls?” You ask and he nods. “Yeah, sure, I remember him.”

“well, he did more than just study souls. he was responsible for the creation of the main source of energy in the underground. let’s just say he was a pretty big deal.” Sans told you and you hummed in agreement. “the reason why no one can seem to recall his name has to do with that invention, which he named ‘the core’. simply put, the core turns magic into pure energy, but it also has several components whose functions or nature were known only to him. whatever those mysterious components were, when he fell into the core all memories of him were erased. because he was so influential, monsters have some vague memory of him, though.”

“Ok, so… what did you have to do with the scientist?”

“i watched him being murdered. somehow, i was able to remember and the murderer did too. must have been because we were so close to the core when he fell down. as his body hit the core it sent out a blast that knocked us both backwards. must have also made us be able to remember.”

“So you know who he is?”

“yep.”

“Why haven’t you told the others?”

“doesn’t matter if i say his name or even write it down. when i say it the monsters around get a massive headache and forget it the second after. if i write it, the sheet of paper goes blank again.”

“Oh!”

“‘oh’ indeed.” Sans agreed. “asgore did recall vaguely his existence and when i explained what had happened he immediately condemned the murderer to the same fate, to which i would oversee, and then asked me to be the judge of the underground.”

“What about your job as a sentry?”

“i only applied after Papyrus showed an interest in joining the royal guard. Before that i worked as judge and helped alphys along the in lab.”

“AHA!” You shouted out, startling him a bit. “I knew you were the scientific type!”

“is it really such a big deal?”

“Why shouldn’t it be? Unlike you I can’t science worth a damn, so heck yeah it’s a big deal! I bet you’re a genius too!”

That seemed to fluster him a bit.

“i’m not even that good…” He mumbled.

“Sweetie, I can barely follow some of the conversations you have with Alphys. You are a genius! Just own it.” He seemed to not know what to say so you moved the conversation along. “So, what were your duties as judge of the whole underground?”

“i was only called when asgore had a serious dispute for me to solve. there weren’t many disputes in the underground and usually the mayors of each region were in charge of solving them. it was only the big ones that needed the king’s attention that required my presence. when asgore learned of my ability to read souls, though, he asked me to judge his visitors as well. you see, because he is a big softy a lot of people were trying to take advantage of that. most of the time he was left with a significant amount less of gold in the royal treasury, it’s didn’t really make a dent in what he had but asgore wanted to save it for the monsters when we left the underground again. so, he asked me to make sure that those sorts of people didn’t bother him.”

“That’s cool. You were like the great defender of the king!”

“meh, it paid the bills and after some time he didn’t really get that many visitors anyway. Word must have spread fast that there was someone keeping the scum out.”

“You mean that ‘there was someone threatening people away’ right?”

“you are really never going to let that go, are you?”

“Exactly!” You smiled.

Sans told you a few of the funnier stories he had been a part of as a judge. You had to constantly smother your laughter so as not to wake anyone else up. Soon you actually started to feel sleepy but you refused to go upstairs to bed. You knew that, no matter how relaxed you would get, you would just have a nightmare anyway. It was the norm this time of the year. It was almost like clockwork.

However, you got so relaxed being around Sans that you actually fell asleep in the couch, leaning into him dazedly when he turned to his memories of waterfall. You hadn’t really known when you changed from talking about his time as a judge to talking about his hobby of watching the glowing stones, but hearing about it, imagining it so sharply in your mind, you soon started to drift away into dream land.

You felt something warm in your forehead, and there was a sparkling sensation there but it felt good and you were so far gone you didn’t bother trying to see what it was. You simply leaned further into the skeleton.

Surprisingly, in the next morning, no one seemed to want to bother waking you up and you actually overslept. It was around 10am when you finally woke up. You were embarrassed to find that Sans was already wide awake for some time and was letting you keep using his arm as a body pillow of sorts.

Papyrus had already left for his interview and you didn’t get to wish him good luck, which saddened you somewhat. Fortunately, it also meant that Undyne and Alphys weren’t around to tease you both, though you were sure that Undyne was ready to start doing it as soon as she returned for lunch.

The only one still home, in fact, was Asgore, who was taking the chance to tend the gardens. You decided to help him out for a bit as Sans chilled on a lawn chair drinking ketchup. You would sometimes toss small piles of weeds his way but they always got redirected to the trash bin. Well… at least you were forcing him to help around… in a way?

Toriel still wasn’t back by noon when Undyne returned, but that was expected. She was busy getting approval from the government to open up her school and they were pulling all the stops they could on her to delay the inevitable. She wouldn’t give up. You knew that much.

Suddenly the front door slammed open. You didn’t react much. After the way Undyne had done the same when she bought her house you had grown used to it, even if you didn’t like the loud bang of the door hitting the wall.

It came as no surprise when this time Papyrus was the one coming in, looking very much excited.

“THEY WANT ME TO START NEXT MONDAY!!!” He said.

“Congratulations, Papyrus.”

= **I knew you could do it!** = Rajani confirmed, having brought her bot down at some point while Undyne was teasing you and Sans.

“LET’S CELEBRATE WITH SPAGHETTI!!!”

“HECK YEAH, PUNK!” Undyne chimed in, mostly because she was starting to feel hungry.

By the time Toriel had returned, they had already laid claim to the division and shooed her out. Aside from the time they helped you out, you hadn’t actually seen those two cooking. At least not by themselves. Usually Toriel was always overseeing them in the kitchen but she must have been really tired that day. She simply sat down on the armchair and practically sank into the cushioning.

“Everything alright, Tori?” Asgore asked and you took notice of the nickname right away.

“Yes. I’m afraid I simply just had to walk a lot. There were no free parking spots near the buildings I needed to get to. I had to park very far away a weave my way through the crowd as I was told to go gather some more papers someplace or another.”

“Bureaucracy at its finest.” You commented.

“It seems so, I’m afraid.”

Asgore started to dote on Toriel for a bit and, when the kids finally arrived home, Flowey immediately made gagging noises upon seeing the sickeningly sweet display. Just like a kid watching their parents. Really, any more obvious and everyone would start to notice. 

You were just about to tease the soulless flower when-

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

You got knocked out of your feet with the explosion.

_-Suddenly you are forced forward by heat. Something hurts your leg. You scream in pain. Help. Someone.-_

_No! I’m not there! I’M NOT BACK THERE!_ You tell yourself.

You dazedly try to go towards the blast. Your ears are ringing so bad…

_-You felt your ears ringing like when a loud sound leaves you temporarily deaf. You didn’t understand what was wrong.-_

_-You could feel something soft beneath you but it was far too irregular to be a bed and you felt water. All around you. On top of you. But you knew you weren’t in a beach either. The ringing was subsiding a little and you hear something other than it but you still couldn’t understand what it was.-_

_NO, I AIN’T THERE! FOCUS MIRANDA! YOU AREN’T BACK THERE!_ You keep chanting to yourself, trying to keep hold on your presence of mind. Undyne and Papyrus might need me right now. It’s no time to give into a flashback, goddamit!

You manage to stand up a bit and stumble towards the door way to the kitchen where the blast had come from.

Then you see it. Red everywhere!

_-You sit up again and look at the sea of red, turned purple under the blue lights, all around you as you hear people screaming in agony.-_

NO, PLEASE, NOT NOW! PLEASE!

Papyrus was laying on his back, his white apron with ‘cool dude’ written on it was stained red with tomato sauce, the part where his stomach would be, if he actually had one, sagging down to his spine making him look like a disemboweled human… like how gramps… no…

You couldn’t fight it anymore.

You froze in place as the story you knew by heart, that was deeply engraved in your soul, began replaying in front of you without you being able to stop it.

.

.

.

_-You wanted to celebrate getting a job abroad.-_

_-Imagine that. You! Of all people! Being asked to work in America! Sure the company wasn’t a Disney or a Warner Bros. but it still sometimes helped some of the larger companies in producing movies and that was a big deal!-_

_-Even your sister came from her district to celebrate with you!-_

_-For once you felt a sense of accomplishment.-_

_-Rajani might have started studying design to get back a Daniel, but you were rising so much more above all that. For once you felt invincible. For once you felt tall. For once you didn’t feel like the court jester that everyone picked on and made fun of.-_

_-Because this was your accomplishment, you got to choose how you would celebrate. So, you picked the Oceanarium.-_

_-You’d heard that there would be a special show at night. They would be feeding the fishes inside the tank and some swimmers that played mermaids for a living were even swimming inside the fish tank.-_

_-Your grandpa wanted to go eat out instead, but you were set on it. You wanted to go to the Oceanarium!-_

If only you had known…

_-the people had crowded around the tanks but you and your family got a place right next to the tank’s glass. Because your grandfather had trouble walking you had brought him in a wheelchair and the people in charge of manning the crowd helped bring him forward.-_

_-The show wasn’t very long and at times the swimmers had to go up to breathe. They never went to the center of the tank because then they would be too far away from the glass for the crowd to see. Well… almost all of them.-_

_-One had veered off to the center before coming back. A prop must have fallen when they dived in and they went to retrieve it.-_

But that hadn’t been it, had it?

_-The show ended and you and your family decided to visit the rest of the Oceanarium. There was more to the Oceanarium than just the main tank, after all, and you did want to see the penguins and sea horses. Jellyfish were beautiful as well.-_

_-You watched the blue waters that surround you and looked back at your grandfather in his wheelchair.-_

_-“Look gramps, isn’t this awesome?” He nods, smiling amusedly.-_

_-Sis was reading an informational board up ahead. Should you join her? Hmm… why not?-_

_-You turn around and see your mom pushing gramps’ chair towards the two of you. Good, that way you’ll remain together. You turn towards your sister again. Surprise glomp!!!-_

_-Suddenly you are forced forward by heat. Something hurts your leg. You scream. Help. Someone.-_

_- ***You call for help.** -_

_- ***but nobody came.** -_

_-You fell unconscious as you felt Rajani reaching out for you.-_

_-…-_

_-You were falling in the darkness. You weren’t the only one falling, another vaguely human shape that glowed yellow was falling too and you were desperately trying to hold them. You didn’t know why, but you felt that they were important.-_

_-But you failed as they were falling faster than you. Someone glowing royal blue clasped your hand. Your hand didn’t look much like your hand, you noticed. Not only was it glowing in green but, though it was still a hand, it was a generic one. Both you and the glowing royal blue someone were as vaguely shaped as the yellow someone that had fallen.-_

_- **HOLD ON, MIRANDA!** Said Rajani’s voice. It came from the vaguely human shaped royal blue person holding you. Behind her was a tear in the blackness that glowed with light and she was leaning out from it.-_

_-You held on. You felt grieve for the yellow person even though you couldn’t understand why, but you held on. You didn’t know where you were or why, but you were getting out!-_

_-…-_

_-Rajani was pulling you out of the darkness and into the light. That’s all you remembered from your dream when you woke up. You felt your ears ringing like when a loud sound leaves you temporarily deaf. You didn’t understand what was wrong.-_

_-You could feel something soft beneath you but it was far too irregular to be a bed and you felt water. All around you. On top of you. But you knew you weren’t in a beach either. The ringing was subsiding a little and you heard something other than it, but you still couldn’t understand what it was.-_

_-You opened your eyes but everything was so blurry. Rajani was with you but she seemed as confused as you were. You almost talked out loud with her but no one knew you had multiple personality so you couldn’t and the ringing and the blurriness had given you a headache making it harder for you to focus on inner dialogue.-_

_-You saw dark blue lights like the ones in… Oh right! You had been in the Oceanarium hadn’t you? But why were you wet? What had happened? Did the glass break? No, that didn’t make sense. The water would have been higher, then, wouldn’t it?-_

_-You scrubbed your eyes trying to see better. There seemed to be some purplish matter all around you, not near you, but further around. Your sister was the soft stuff underneath you, you realized. You weakly tried to sit up but your arms were trembling so much that you fell flat again.-_

_-Now you could hear better. It sounded like… no…-_

_-You sit up again and look at the sea of red, turned purple under the blue lights, all around you as you hear people screaming in agony.-_

_-You frantically looked around you to assess what had happened.-_

_-…the explosion…-_

_-The central tank, that had been behind you as you ran to your sister was blown to pieces. But not just blown to pieces, it was like something at taken a big bite out of it. Where was the water? Where were the fishes? They should all be flopping around you or at least be there. The walls on the other sides of the tank were gone too, only the ones behind you remained.-_

_-Odd.-_

_-But that was the least of your worries!-_

_\- you tried to search around for you mother and grandfather. The few still flickering purple lights above you were your only guide. There was a hole in the ceiling too, but it was nighttime outside so no light was coming down from there.-_

_-Then you found your grandpa…-_

_-He…-_

* * *

_-He was lying face up, eyes blankly staring at the broken ceiling. The wheelchair was thorn to pieces and the few remaining pieces where… in his legs… his sizeable stomach… was caved in… red pooling all around him… you could see a rib sticking out?-_

_-You looked away as horror filled you.-_

_-No, this had to be a nightmare! There was no way you had seen it right… right?-_

_-You peeked back but the same grisly, gory sight met your eyes.-_

_-“N-no… grandpa… no…” You sobbed weakly. “…no… please tell me it’s a lie… please… please… someone… someone wake me up…”-_

_-But no, he was still there.-_

_-“M-mom?” You asked, hoping in vain for a reply. “MOM!” You tried louder.-_

_-…-_

_-No reply…-_

_-You stood up ready to search for her near your grandpa but tripped on some sort of cord, falling flat on the spreading pool of blood.-_

_-You took hold of the cord that had made you trip and recoiled in absentminded disgust at the slick, gross feeling of it.-_

_-You look to see where it came from…-_

_-It was attached to the lower portion of a body… you recognized those legs…-_

_-You look to the other side of the organ you had tripped on…-_

_-And there was your mother’s upper torso.-_

* * *

_-You gagged and dry heaved as you sank into the horror that you were seeing.-_

_-And then you felt nothing but numbness as you slowly started to shut down.-_

_- **Stand up! Go to your sister!** -_

_-She’s probably dead too… it doesn’t matter…-_

_- **Fuck! Just…!** -_

_-Rajani took over and walked you to your sister, you knew she was feeling very much as sick and in emotional pain and turmoil as you but she was trying to stay strong.-_

_-She plopped your body down near your sister and, with a bloody hand, reached for her pulse.-_

_-…-_

_-You felt it.-_

_-She was still alive…-_

_-You took over your body again as you leaned down to see if she was breathing.-_

_-…-_

_-She was.-_

_-Emotions clashed strongly inside once again. Horror, dread, anguish and despair against relief and hope.-_

_-So many emotions. You just couldn’t keep them in…-_

_-You shouted at the skies, eyes wide open as tears blurred your vision. You screamed so loud you swore you would be mute by the time you ran out of breath. You simply screamed, praying for you don’t know what.-_

_-You just wanted to die and join them… but your sister was still alive… you just wanted the pain to end.-_

But you sister hadn’t come out of it unscathed, had she?

_-Despair filled you completely upon that thought, though you had no way of knowing that at the time. But you didn’t question how you knew that. You didn’t question how you knew a lot of things. You merely felt filled to the brim with hopelessness. With… selflessness. Your body felt so cold…-_

Something warm touched your shoulder making you slightly aware that there was someone there. Someone that didn’t belong in that hellhole.

That touch reminded you of sushi and justice and fighting spirit. 

Another touch joined that one. Tea, the smell of cut grass and golden flowers.

Another, this time it felt like optimism and jovial energy and bright orange and spaghetti.

Another: caramel and cinnamon, worn books, soft as cotton…

Another: idolizing one’s hero, Indiana Jones, Steven Universe, Yellow…

Another: Bright red, chocolate, peacefulness, determination…

Another: Cold and unfeeling outside but a spark of something inside, five points stars, flowers…

Another: Cyan blush, warm, safe, comfortable, cute, fun, smart, stars, science, you wanted to protect him…

You finally hear Rajani again, the one from the present, not the one from the past.

Protective, concerned, friend, mind sister, Raj…

You woke up surrounded by your friends.

Your soul stats were out:

.

>   
>  **“Miranda”**
> 
> **LV 1**
> 
> **HP 0.00000000001/2505**
> 
> **AT 27 (0) EXP: 1**
> 
> **DF 24 (0)**
> 
> ***No longer dead inside…**  
> 

.  
.

But you weren’t paying them much attention. Not when you saw all of your friends holding onto you, eyes closed, and a green light was emitted from their hands. Even Frisk was trying, though there was a red haze instead of green from their hands.

You didn’t even take notice as your HP steadily rose to 5 in that small frame of time.

You just felt loved. Wanted. Despite everything… 

…

…

…they still wanted you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> good news? the unofficial(thus far) first act in almost done and now you know of Miranda's past. (Unlike the Daniel one this one is fully fictional)
> 
> Bad news? I'm not going to have internet for a while and might miss a few update days. I managed to snag a job interview too (i needs le muns for paying my studies). I'm not sure when will I be back and I feel sort of sorry to leave you in this much of a cliffhanger (like, we know that she is alright now, but only you readers know about it whereas the monsters are just downright confused and scared (especially Sans, I mean just finding out he is in love with the woman only for her to almost kick the bucket from a PTSD flashback? that is some hard shit over there.
> 
> The part of me that doesn't feel remorse over leaving you guys hanging just wants to do an evil laugh while striking my white (and fat) cat.
> 
> I can asure you though... I didn't plan this XD It just happened tohave to update this chapter right now XD sorry... (partially not sorry ;P)
> 
> As for the chapter title (and the song that Mir was listening to) it was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWEsrQx6A2U  
> I added the link here instead of the beginning since you'll understand why i chose it a bit more after reading her past. Also, if you do listen to it, you'll see why Rajani considers Mir slightly masochistic for listening to it.


	42. Chapter 41: The Kid Who Refused

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk's view on the flash back and immediate aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> long chapter. Consider Frisk's POV as a bonus since it lests us see into some things in his point of view taht we would never find out other wise.

\--Frisk’s POV--

 

Frisk hadn’t been too worried when Mirandy told them they couldn’t go with her to visit her sister. They had been a bit disappointed, sure, but they hadn’t been worried. They had thought there might be something off with her sister or something.

…

Chara had disagreed.

Chara wasn’t always present in their soul. It was very exhausting for them to keep a constant grip on their soul while not having any EXP and only having 1 of LV. They had taken to visit on and off instead of spending the whole day with them lately. Something about a purple lady or something. Frisk had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

Be that as it may, Chara had actually been present when they asked if they could join Mirandy in her visit and they claimed that she had looked downright scared.

Frisk wasn’t sure about that. They did see some fear in her, but they weren’t sure it was the dread that Chara insisted was there.

Looking back perhaps they should have trusted Chara on that one.

Not all of the things Chara said used to be trustworthy, like when they told them to try and kill all the monsters to see what happened. But Frisk admitted that was their own fault as much as theirs.

They should have known better than to take lives for playthings…

Regardless, ever since Frisk had reached to ‘The Truce’ with Chara, they had begun to be more trustworthy. So, Frisk should have believed them.

When the kitchen blew up, everyone in the living room had been a bit tossed to the side. Especially those that were standing instead of sitting. 

Frisk had been too busy seeing if Flowey was still in one piece after they landed on him and didn’t realize Mirandy was crawling away, considering how bad their ears were ringing.

Everyone else was pretty unfazed by it beyond the typical seeing if nothing was broken. Sans might have teleported to the kitchen for a while to check on his brother, but Frisk wasn’t sure. All things considered, Undyne and Papyrus blowing up the kitchen wasn’t that unusual. Or hadn’t been, before Mom decreed that the kitchen was her area which, admittedly, was quite some time ago.

So, no one had noticed anything was amiss with Mirandy.

It hadn’t been until Undyne screamed that Mirandy was dying that they noticed something was wrong.

She had been on her knees like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been snapped off, eyes glassy and dead looking and Undyne swore that she was cold as ice after touching her shoulder, which was why she had pulled her stats out.

>   
>    
> “Miranda”
> 
> LV 1
> 
> HP 884/2058
> 
> AT 27 (0) EXP: 1
> 
> DF 24 (0)
> 
> *The dark memories call your name.  
>    
> 

= **T͏a҉ke mę ͡t̶o ̸h͠er,͏ ͝ki̵dd̡o̕.̢** = She tried to demand, but her voice was sounding staticky and weird, like she was low on batteries or something. Still, they did it.

Rajani tried to hit Miranda in the head while shouting at her that it wasn’t real, but nothing happened. Miranda was still steadily losing HP and the soul script was still the same, except that it added a new line under the previous one.

.

>   
>  *You’re too deep down to be reached.   
> 

.

“What exactly is happening, punk!!!?” Undyne shouted at Rajani on the verge of panicking, muttering something about Miranda losing HP too fast to try to slap her out of it. 

= **I͢t͝’s̢ ͠a ̡fu̢c͏ki̷n̛g̢ f̷la̷s͝hba҉ck! I̶t’͜s̷ ̕h͏er͘ PT̸SD ac͝ting ҉u̧p҉! She ha͢s̷n̨’̸t͡ ̸had͜ o͞ne thi̢s̨ severe̴ fo͢ŗ ove͢r ̛a y̧e͏a̡r! ̵Wh̶y͝ th͠e ̷a͡c͜tu̧a̛l͜ fu̴c̡k҉ did͜ ̸you̸ two ͜th͡o҉ugh͠t͞ i͏t̵ wa̴s͜ ͢a ̶g̕odda͢mn ̡g͘o͟od̵ i͏d͟e͞a t̴o͟ ̛b͟l̷ow̵ ̷u̶p̕ t̵he ̛f̛ucki͝ng͞ ҉k̷i͘t͝chen͞!!!** = She shouted back harshly, the staticky quality of her voice making the noise almost unbearable. = **Go҉dḑami͏t!̢!! ̡Fu̡c͢k̶!͝!! Wh͏y̢!?͞ ͝W̢hy can’̷t I̡ ͟ev͠e̕r ͝d̢o̶ ͜a͟ny̷t͘hi͡ng̢ ̧t̛o͝ ͠h̡e͢lp h͡e̢r͟. I͘ ҉ca̕n̨’t͞ ̵e͢ven̢ ͞reach͠ h͝er̶ m͠ȩn͡tal̛ly! ̡S̡he’̷s ͢t͟o͠o҉ ̶fa͘r҉ ͢go͏ne͞! F̢u͢ck… FU̸C͏K̕ FUCK F̧͏U҉͠C̴K͟͠͞ ̶̸̵F͘͘U҉͞CK̨̢ FU͜Ç̵͟K̶͡F̷̢Ų͠C̵͘͡K̛̕F̕͡͝U̢̢C̴̸͘͝K̸͏͠F͝U͡C̵̛K̷̵͝҉͜F̵̴̵̸͘Ư͢͝C͏̨K̸͜͝F͟U̕C̶K̶̡͢F̵̸͢͝U̴̢̧͝͞C̸̶̴̢͢K̶҉͝!̸̛͘͟͝!̴!̶̡͘͟!̵͡!̷̡̡!̵͜!̧͜͝͝!̨̕!͏̢͢͠͝!̶̷͜͜͡** =

“Rajani! Shut up. Your swearing isn’t helping!” Mom berated. And then, sounding every bit as calm as a meditating tibetian monk, she demanded. “Asgore, help me move her to my bed. This hallway is too narrow for all of us and we need space if we want to help her.”

Before anyone else could react, Sans scooped Mirandy up and held Mom’s wrist and they were gone, Rajbot going with them, since she had been clinging to her mind sister.

They all ran upstairs to Mom’s room. Like always, it smelled like pie and had a lot of space. After everyone was inside it didn’t feel so spacey anymore, though.

Chara must have sensed the disturbance in some way because they appeared in Frisk not long after they entered the room. They merely observed helplessly, unsure of what to say, but Frisk sensed that they were very much there. Mom and Sans were trying to force-feed Mirandy some monster candy, without any results.

= **I caņ’҉t h̡o͝ld͟ ҉o̧n ͡a͠n͢y̨ ̷l̛ong͡er̕! ̛I̶’m g͟oi͠n͠g͏ ̨t̵o need̡ ͝a̕ll ͡my s͠trengt̶h͘ ̕to͡ hel҉p ͟her͟ ̷thŗoug̢h thi̶s.̷ I̴’m l҉e̕a̧v҉i͝n͡g t͡he ̨bot͢ rig̵ht ҉n̢ow̧!!҉! Ḩelp ͞u̶s!̴!!̴** = Rajani practically begged and then Rajbot went limp. Looking at Miranda’s stats, Frisk went pale.  
.

>   
>    
> HP 23/2058
> 
> *The darkness of the void is closing in.  
>    
> 

.

 

And just before their eyes her HP went down to one as everyone gasped.  
.

>   
>    
> HP 1/2058
> 
> *You are filled with selflessness.  
>    
> 

.

 

Frisk closed their eyes not wanting to see their friend die just like everyone else. That was, until Sans said.

“she’s still alive.”

Then Frisk opened up their eyes and looked at the skeleton, he looked like a wreck. Everyone did, completely unsure of what to do, but he looked worse for the wear when compared to the others. Then Frisk looked at the stats.  
.

>   
>    
> HP 1/2079
> 
> *You are filled with selflessness.  
> *But integrity barely holds you together.  
>    
> 

.

 

Her maximum HP was rising? How? Integrity? Was it Rajani?

Sans renewed his efforts in trying to get you to swallow the candy, though your body choked it back out.  
.

>   
>    
> HP 1/2102
> 
> *You are filled with selflessness.  
> *But integrity barely holds you together.  
>    
> 

.

 

“Sans! Stop It’s not working! We have to get an experienced healer right now!” Undyne said, calling Alphys in hopes of her knowing a way to help keep Mirandy alive.

Mom and Dad also started dialing their phones in search for an available healer.

Sans was more than a wreck, his efforts on trying to get you to swallow the candy were now desperate. 

Papyrus and MK were panicking hard.  
.

>   
>    
> HP 0.5/2342
> 
> *You are filled with selflessness.  
> *Integrity is beginning to falter.  
>    
> 

.

 

Undyne’s phone call connected.

“U-U-Undyne! Is an-n-n-nything-”

“ALPHYS!” Undyne interrupted. “WE NEED ADVICE ASAP! Miranda is having a flashback. It’s serious. She is losing her HP pretty fast! She only has half of a hit point, and it’s steadily going down! We need a way to keep her alive until someone can come!”

“W-W-W-WHAT!!!!!!!!” Alphys shouted out. “Oh, no! Oh no, what do we do!!!”

Mom took over the phone, handing hers to Undyne, telling her to keep calling any healer she knew.

“Calm down Alphys. I need you to focus! What do you know about soul health that might help us with this?” Mom said calmly. Frisk knew that the calmness was a farce for the sake of keeping everyone else from panicking.  
.

>   
>    
> HP 0.00001/2457
> 
> *You are filled with selflessness.  
> *Integrity is faltering but…  
> *She won’t give up!  
>    
> 

.

 

Sans as given up on trying to force-feed you the candy and is crying. Frisk had never seen him cry like that. Then again, they hadn’t gone out of their way to hunt him down before reaching the judgement hall on a genocide run after killing his brother. 

Papyrus hugged him and MK, leading them away from the sleeping woman.  
.

>   
>    
> HP 0.000000001/2504
> 
> *You are filled with selflessness.  
> *Integrity is-  
>    
> 

.

 

Undyne tossed the phone aside in a bought of… something and jumped towards the bed. She grasped Mirandy’s shoulder suddenly and firmly, a green aura coming off from her hand.

At hearing the startled gasps, Alphys, who was on speaker, asked. “What’s going on now?!?!?!”

“Undyne is trying to heal her…” Dad said.

“OH NO! That could be catastrophic! Only experienced healers should do that. Healing is a delicate process that if not done properly could lead to-”

Frisk didn’t really care about what Alphys had to say about healing. A second after Undyne started healing the HP finally stopped lowering. All Mirandy’s stats were unmoving, in fact.  
.

>   
>    
> HP 0.00000000001/2505
> 
> *You are filled with selflessness  
> *But…  
> *Something warm reaches out to you.  
>    
> 

.

 

Dad was the next joining in. He couldn’t move closer to her upper body without knocking anyone down so he grasped her foot, which was the only thing he had access to. Papyrus Immediately joined in, dropping both Sans and MK. He grabed her hand, standing at Undyne’s side.

Mom took hold of her other leg at the knee and Frisk just wanted to help somehow.

# We can, you know? We may not be able to heal but we can donate some Determination to keep her going. #

Just as Chara said that MK bites down, on the same leg whose foot Dad is holding, at the thigh.

Not to be outdone, Frisk followed Chara’s instructions and grabed her other hand as Flowey used his vines to climb closer and tried to join in as well.

Sans finally managed to calm down enough to get a small green spark going that he applies directly to her chest where the soul would be.

They all close their eyes to focus better on their energy as Alphys frantically asked what was going on via the speaker.

Mirandy gasps but they don’t let up. It isn’t until they hear a new sobbing voice that they finally look up.

Frisk had never seen or heard Mirandy cry. Just the mere sight of it was heart wrenching. Frisk realized that her HP was going up now that she was actually awake. She had now 26/2505HP.

“I’m going to get some pie right now.” Mom said.

Mom’s pie might not have as much magic as Papyrus’ spaghetti but it was always able to heal a soul fully. Mom had also always been able to heal small wounds and bruises without using food but this was the first time she healed something of this magnitude… as far as Frisk knew.

# Yeah, Mom had never healed something on this scale. #

Why was everyone so worried about healing without food, though? Frisk had never quite understood it.

# From what I know, healing is a very precise area of magic, just like surgery is a very precise area of medicine. One wrong move and it could hurt more than heal or inadvertly twist a soul. That’s if the damage is on the soul alone. When it comes to healing the body as well it gets even more complicated, especially when it comes to humans. #

Oh! Now Frisk understood. They seriously hoped they hadn’t messed anything up with Mirandy.

Speaking of her, she was still sobbing uncontrollably, one arm holding herself as if she was cold and the other grasping at her heart. It was as if she wasn’t sure what she was feeling herself and nobody else knew how to approach her right now, simply letting her cry it out. That was, until Sans decided to scoop her up into his lap again and she latched at him like a koala. A koala very desperate for physical contact.

That broke the ice, causing everyone to want to hold her too, aside from Flowey who decided to move away like a complete… what was that word that Alphys used a lot? It sounded a lot like Tsunderplane’s name. 

Eventually Mirandy’s sobs started calming down. Mom returned with a slice of her typical butterscotch cinnamon pie. Mirandy didn’t seem to want to eat it, probably due to her mental state, but seemed to understand that everyone was so concerned with her that she really didn’t have a choice. She took a bite of the slice.

“My child.” Mom said in her mom-tone. “I have let you keep your privacy so far, but after today we really need to know what happened.”

Mirandy shrunk in on herself and started shivering again.

“tori, do we really have to do this now?” Sans asked for Mirandy’s sake.

“Yes, we do. I don’t know when she might relapse so we need to know this right now while we still can.”

Sans couldn’t really argue with that.

“You can take your time, Miranda, but I’m not letting this go.” Mom gently insists.

Her trembling became worse before suddenly it was gone altogether. She looked… void of feelings. It wasn’t Rajani, or any other entity as far as Frisk could tell. It was still her. Her stats were still out so when her script said *You locked away your feelings to tell your story it meant that Miranda was the one doing it herself. There hadn’t been sign of Rajani either. The Rajbot was still very much disconnected.

“It was the explosion. It set off my PTSD.” She said, her voice as hollow as her expression. “After I graduated in Design it took me months to finally get a good job opportunity. I would be coming from my country to here. I wanted to celebrate. I… I…” Her facade broke apart as she tried to get her next sentence out. “It’s my fault. They wouldn’t even have been there if I hadn’t insisted! My grandpa hadn’t even wanted to go there anyway. He wanted us to plan a simple dinner or lunch at a fancy restaurant! Why did I have to be so damn selfish! What is wrong with me?! Why did I have to insist on going there?!!!” Sans held her tighter as understanding started to dawn on everyone’s faces. “But no! I went there! And now they’re gone! Gone because of me. And my sister is alive but could that still even be considered as being alive!? Yet, here I am! Healthy as a bull even though I was there! I shouldn’t even be alive! Why am I alive?! I should have died! Even science agrees that I should be dead! But no! Why do I have to be such a goddamn freak?!!!!”

“Whoa. Calm down punk! What do you mean? What happened? Was it a bomb?” Undyne asked and Mirandy nodded in response.

“MIRANDA… YOU HAD NO WAY OF KNOWING THAT SOMEONE WOULD BE PLANTING A BOMB WHEREVER YOU HAD DECIDED TO CELEBRATE AT. IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT.”

“But if I hadn’t insisted we wouldn’t even have been there! Don’t you see?”

“WHAT I SEE IS A YOUNG LADY TAKING THE BLAME FOR SOMEONE ELSES ACTIONS.”

“I agree, yo!” MK said from where he was standing. “Did you plant the bomb?” Miranda said nothing, merely shaking her head in horror at the accusation. “Did you know anyone was going to plant a bomb there?” Another shake. “Then how can it be your fault? By your way I thinking my parents being dead would have been my fault too! I was the one who opened the door. They could have run away if they hadn’t wanted to keep me safe! But you told me it wasn’t my fault and I’ve accepted it, so now you have to accept it too!”

Frisk had known their friend had a hard time in coming to terms with his parent’s death, but they hadn’t known he had been the one who opened the door. Frisk also wanted to help snap Mirandy out of her mental state but she really wasn’t in any condition to read their hand gestures. Fortunately, Dad voiced their affirmation.

“And you aren’t a ‘freak’, young one!” Well… sort of voiced their affirmation, anyway. Frisk certainly wouldn’t ever have said ‘young one’.

“Then why am I alive? I should be dead. I shouldn’t have lived!”

“Miranda, there’s no reason to question why you survived the explosion. There was probably something that shielded you from the debris.” Mom said gently

“No. That would be fine for a regular explosion, but not the one I was in. There really is no reason for me to be alive other than me being a complete and utter freak of nature.” She said, bitterness lacing her words. 

“you aren’t a freak of nature.” Sans said and something on her must have snapped.

She wrenched herself free of his hold on her and stalked to a corner of the room that was reasonably empty.

“You don’t know what you are talking about.” She said simply. And then she started laughing sounding just a bit too insane. “You have absolutely no fucking idea!!! Haha! How can I survive the most destructible weapon on the planet-hahahahaha-, one guaranteed to get rid of all matter, and survive, then!?!?! Hehe. What, ahahah, suddenly God decided to help me out all of the sudden? Well, fuck him because I still believe he is complete bullshit! Heheheheh! Screw him, screw those bastards that planted the bomb and screw me for surviving! I guess that I’m at least useful next time someone needs an antimatter shield, isn’t it? At least I’m good for something other than fucking up my life, huh?”

Frisk stopped in their track. They remembered the documentary about the antimatter bomb. Their parents hadn’t wanted to tell them about it so they had used the school’s computer to do some research. Hearing Mirandy’s words they couldn’t help but compare her to the Banshee. 

The Banshee had been a long-haired brunette in an yellow dress. Miranda had black hair, not brown, but she admitted to coloring it a long time ago… Long hair could also be cut… And considering how bloodied the dress was there’s no way she would have kept it…

Most of them stood still in shock over the realization, the same as them. Papyrus didn’t hesitate, though.

“MIRANDA! TO ME YOU ARE FAR MORE USEFUL THAN AS A SHIELD! YOU LISTEN TO ME WHEN I NEED TO TALK WITH SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T TREAT ME AS A CHILD; YOU HELP ME LEARN NEW THINGS AND TELL ME WHEN I’M DOING SOMETHING WRONG INSTEAD OF JUST SMILING AND TELLING ME IT’S OK. YOU ARE MY FRIEND! AND YOU MAY HAVE SHIELDED ME FROM A BULLET IN THE PAST, BUT TO ME YOU ARE WORTH WAY MORE THAN THAT!” Papyrus said as he grasped her shoulders to keep her from running.

Everyone else joined in on his comment and by the end Mirandy was crying again, looking as if she couldn’t believe her ears.

“… why? Why do your care about me? I’m just a freak. An anomaly in the fabric of this world. I’m not worthy of this. If I was worthy of any kind of love wouldn’t have I been loved before? J-just… why?” Mirandy whined, curling on herself.

To say it took a long time to calm Mirandy down from all of that would be putting it mildly. By the end Mom had managed to coax her into finish eating her pie and she had all of her health back now, but she was so exhausted from her attack that she ended up falling asleep. 

Everyone was still a bit tense over what happened and there was always someone in Mirandy’s room to assure everyone she was still ok. Sans was pretty insistent on staying there. It made sense since he could constantly monitor her soul stats without having to pull them out but Frisk doubted that was his only reason alone. They just weren’t feeling up to teasing him about it right now and they doubted he was feeling up to be teased either.

Now all they could do was wait. Frisk never thought they could feel this powerless again.

They used to be so powerless, unable to do anything about their own situation.

Frisk had known there were better families out there than their biological one. They always had. All they had to do was look at their neighbors’ family life back then to know that. There really wasn’t much difference between the two. Both families were poor, in both cases the father had deserted the mother, but their little neighbor’s mother didn’t feel the need to constantly blame all her suffering on her child unlike Frisk’s biological mother.

Anything would set their mother off. It went down to the smallest details. Objects that Frisk was too short to reach, that were millimeter or two off to the side, were enough to set her off and blame them. And then she hit them. She slapped and kicked until they didn’t have any strength to stand up anymore. There were times they couldn’t even get up from bed with all the pain they felt.

The only times mother had ever been affectionate were when her friends came to visit. Then they stopped being the reason everything in her life went wrong and became the light of her life for just a few hours. Frisk loved when her friends came to visit. They tried to get them to visit more but their mother had stopped any attempts. Frisk really couldn’t do anything to help themselves. And if they ever told any of her friends what she was doing…? Well… she already had a plan for that. She had told them that they sometimes liked to pretend that ‘mommy’ hit them whenever she didn’t buy them a toy they wanted. And they believed her. Why should they believe a kid after all?

Then one of the friends had decided to surprise mother with a visit and had seen what was really going on in the house. Apparently, the next-door neighbor had been the one to suggest it. Frisk had always thought they were ignorant to their suffering. Now-a-days, they couldn’t help but wonder why they hadn’t done anything before, like calling the police or social services, as they knew they were supposed to do, but at the time they’d found out about it they couldn’t help but be thankful for it.

They were sent to foster families.

Those weren’t much better. Once they did get a good one but then they decided they didn’t want to continue fostering and wanted a family for themselves. They hated having to part with the kids under their care because they had bonded with them and it hurt every single time.

Frisk had many bad foster families. Some would lock their fridge and pantry and not let any kid snack through the day aside from the typical lunch and dinner. The portions were always small. Some kids would try to lock pick the locks but they always caught who did it and would lock them up in the basement without food for a whole day. It was far easier to actually steal from a store than from them.

Other’s had a penchant for physical punishment. They believed that any other punishment was the easy way out. But they didn’t go for simple slaps to the butt. No. They preferred using belts and flat wooden objects and wouldn’t really care where they hit them.

Then there were the ones that were ‘nice’. They always wanted to touch them. At first just casually in the shoulder or rubbing their thighs comfortingly, but gradually they would touch places that were more and more uncomfortable. And then they wanted to keep special secrets with them… Frisk was lucky they never got to go further than that. They knew from the other kids what they really did to those who weren’t as lucky…

Frisk had been really subdued at first to all of the changes. After all that time with their biological mother hammering unconditional obedience into them, there was no other way for them to be, even knowing that there were better families out there. But that first family had taught them a sense of self-worth before they stopped fostering kids and had broken down the first layer of conditioned behavior their mother had imposed on them.

The other layers were broken bit by bit as Frisk observed the other kids. They watched them stand up to the abusers and aggressors, they watched them kick and scream and run away. And at their last foster home, when one of the foster parents came home drunk and started knocking kids around, it had been the last drop for Frisk.

*They refused!

They had been contented on just observing everything until then. They were sick and tired of being under a bully’s control. They remembered the manly girl that had taught them sign language and had knit them a sweater. She hadn’t let anyone stomp on the kids. They’d given her a bandanna with drawn abdominals in it as a joke as a way to thank her for all her care… They now knew what happened to her… So, they took a page from her book and smashed a bottle against the head of the awful person as they were choking one of the little girls on the floor, knocking them out.

It took all of them to dislodge them from on top of the girl and, after all was said and done, they all ran away from that awful house. Frisk donned the sweater his old friend had made. It had been to big bck then. It was still too big now, but it fitted much better. That done, they finally ran out of the house. That had been, by far, the worst house. Frisk was smart enough to know that not all foster houses were like the ones they had been in, that there were good foster houses, but they didn’t want to risk it, so they ran away.

They ran away because they were tired of not being in control of their own fate.

They weren’t sure why they had chosen to climb Mount Ebbot in the first place. In a way, it felt like something had attracted them there. Like fate? But they didn’t really like the notion that everything was meant to happen one way or another because it meant they were still not in charge of their own life. They preferred to think of fate the same way monsters thought of soulmates. There was a path that was a perfect fit but you didn’t have to choose that path if you didn’t want to. Dad hadn’t been a perfect fit for Mom, but she still chose him.

Anyway, as they were saying, they had been drawn to the mountain. When they admitted that they had purposefully jumped down people tended to think they were trying to kill themselves but… that couldn’t be farther from the truth. They jumped down because it felt right, like they had been supposed to in the first place. They let the social workers keep thinking they were suicidal, though. Anything to keep those horrid people from having kids entrusted to them.

It hadn’t taken them long to find out they could rewind time to certain points in time, an ability they called loading due to their love for video games. It also hadn’t taken them time to figure out how to manipulate those points at will, which they called save points. They completed what they later came to call a neutral run and then learned how to reset, unhappy with the results.

They did manage to get what they called the true ending once, but as soon as the monsters were up top everything just seemed so boring when compared to the underground. Even with their ability to manipulate time, changing the minds of high ranking politicians about the monsters took so much longer than changing the monsters’ minds about humans. They had no patience for any of that.

They reset.

They had no intention of returning above ground. At least not so soon. 

They explored all that they could of the underground and, when that wasn’t enough, they started killing some of the monsters to see the other’s reactions to it. They excused their actions by telling themselves that they would reset later and everything would be fine again. Sure, sometimes people had a sense of dèja vú, but they never actually remembered anything, so all was fine. Or so they thought at first…

They eventually decided to upgrade from the weaker monsters to some of the most important ones. Ones they were close to. The hardest one for them to execute they left for last: their Mom. They did eventually grow bored enough to try it. They killed her maybe twice before their first genocide, though Chara insisted it was many more times than that. But then again, being stuck in the ‘darkness’, as they called it, did some pretty odd things to Chara’s mind. They didn’t even remember that first time they had managed to get out of the underground and claimed they had first found out about Flowey being their brother on the genocide route via their speech.

Be that as it may, it was after those two kills that Frisk started feeling compelled to try and kill everyone. They now knew it had been Chara’s doing, but at the time they thought it had been their idea and they were so drunk with their notion of having complete control over everything that they just went with it.

That was the first time they realized that Sans actually remembered everything. A part of them wanted to stop and apologize for everything and promise to do better, but they had been so filled with LOVE that that didn’t matter to them. They just wanted to see how it ended.

And then Chara took complete control and erased all the world and they were stuck in the same darkness that Chara had been stuck in for centuries. The only way out had been to sell their soul, so they did. They hoped to finally reach the true ending again to make it up to Sans for everything. Chara wasn’t having none of it. They always waited for Frisk to let their guard down and killed their family to force them to reset. Chara never reseted. It hadn’t been their power to do so. Besides, they had wanted for Frisk to suffer the same as they had every time they killed their family.

Chara took control and played with Frisk and Sans as they deemed fit, now that they had control over their soul. They preferred doing genocide runs and later Frisk came to realize why. At times Frisk managed to take over and complete the true ending but Chara always ruined it some way and somehow.

It was with that punishment, being once again without any control over what happened to them, that Frisk realized how they had wronged all of monsterkind, even if they didn’t even know that Frisk had done so. They’d basically used them as their playthings because they didn’t want to deal with the world outside. Because they liked to be the ones in control for once!

…

And they had abused that control… hadn’t they?

They came to terms with the fact that they couldn’t control everything, but they were determined to get the Monsters the happy ending they deserved so they talked to Chara and bargained a deal. And one of Frisk’s last save point was just before they had left the underground.

They had to load back to that same point several times. The initial months had been hellish when it came to keeping peace between both humans and monsters. After things finally calmed down Frisk secretly made another save point so as to avoid undoing all of their hard work in the future. 

To be honest, as difficult as it was to move forward without having constant back up for the slightest errors they made, being forced to deal with them -like any other normal person, they guessed-, it was far more frustrating having to redo all the work they had done for the monsters. They guessed they understood part of Sans’ frustrations now.

Unless something happened that would endanger all of monsterkind, Frisk wasn’t allowed to load. That meant not saving MK’s parents much to Frisk’s regret. It also meant that, if Mirandy had died this day, she would have to remain dead until something that was really bad happened. 

…

Frisk didn’t like that.

So, if she recovered fully from this they would make another safe point. They bet that, even if Sans didn’t really like to have them mess around with their save points, even he would be thankful for it, if their suspicions were true… He didn’t have to know any of that though. Frisk preferred to keep the saving a secret.

They were pulled out of their thoughts when Undyne announced Mirandy was awake and dashed up the stairs. They were surprised that Chara stuck around to see if she was alright too. But then again, she and Rajani had made an impact on the ghost child.

Having changed the girl to her own room, there was suddenly a whole lot less space to sit around her for.

“There’s no need for that. I can go down to the living room on my own, I’m not an invalid.” Was her harsh reply… 

Was Rajani the one who was awake?

“slasher! how’s miranda?!” Sans asked urgently, confirming their assumption to be correct.

“Still sleeping. These PTSD flashbacks always kill all of our energy. I hadn’t thought it would be as literal as I just saw today, though. No wonder we get so worn out…”

“Why aren’t you using your Rajbot?” They asked, feeling very curious.

“Friskroll, you have any idea how tired I am right now? The only reason I’m even forcing myself to be awake at the moment is because you guys have questions. Questions that I don’t want Mir to have to deal with just yet.” She sighs deeply. “Let’s just go to the living room so we can talk about this before she wakes up.”

She tried to get up but her legs as trembling more than reeds on the wind so Sans simply picked her up and teleported away, much to everyone’s frustration.

Frisk dashed down only to hear the end of whatever discussion they had over that short amount of time.

“-expect me to thank you, Cueball.” Rajani finished saying.

“wasn’t counting on it, slasher.”

“There you guys are!” She finally noticed everyone coming down.

She motioned for them to gather around her and only talked again after they did so.

“So… I guess it’s time for story time no2, uh?” She commented aloofly. “Usually I would let Miranda tell you this sort of thing in her own time as a way to get over her past, but you really need answers right now. Some of them are answers she’s not ready to talk about yet. So perhaps you can still get her to talk about some of it later?” She suggested. “Anyway, so, yeah. Three years ago from tomorrow, we and our family visited the Oceanarium. They had this special show at night that Mir wanted to see and because we were celebrating her finally getting a job in the area she wanted to work in, she really begged for it. Our grandpa hadn’t wanted to go and she still blames herself for having forced the issue.” Rajani sighed again. “She almost never got to have things done her way so the fact that she insisted so much that they actually changed their mind on this day exactly will always haunt her. Even if she accepts the fact that it wasn’t her fault she will always have that ‘what if’ thought.”

She paused to gather her thoughts and then continued.

“We stuck around after the show. Mir wanted to take the chance to show our grandpa the Oceanarium. Don’t know why she bothered, though. The guy was an asshole that only cared about himself. We’d been moving away from the main tank when the bomb exploded behind us. And yes. It was the antimatter bomb that you were hearing about the other day on TV.” Rajani confirmed. “Those guys just can’t let go of that. Why all the circus around it? They don’t need to make yet another documentary about it, rubbing salt on our wounds, just to say in the end that they still have no idea how someone produced that much antimatter!!! We just want to forget but every year around this time this shit always comes up again.” She growled out in anger. “Sorry. I’m still a bit oversensitive from the overload of emotion. I always see what she sees when she has her PTSD attacks. Anyway, that doesn’t matter! I was talking about what happened. We got knocked down by the blast. We must have hit our head of something. We had some weird dream before waking up.”

“Dream?” Toriel asked.

“Yeah, a weird detail to remember, I know. I wouldn’t have recalled it if the Cueball’s shortcuts didn’t feel awfully like the sensation we had during that freakish dream.”

“wait, you felt like you were teleporting?”

“More like we felt like we were in that dark place in between point A and point B of your shortcuts.”

“the void?.

“If that is what it’s called then I guess so, yeah.”

“tell me about it.”

“Ask Mir later. I’m sure she doesn’t mind talking about a freaky dream, unlike all the other things I still have to tell you about.” Rajani retorted. “So, as I was saying, we got knocked out and when we woke up… let’s just say that there was no way that our grandpa and mother weren’t dead.”

“HOW SO?” Papyrus asked.

“Because it’s a bit impossible for a human to survive having their internal organs from the abdominal region being eaten away by antimatter or being split apart by pure brute force, being connected by only a section of the smaller intestine. It was a pretty grisly sight. It didn’t help that we were tripped by… yeah, let’s not go there… Our sister was still alive, though. We were so relieved, but at the same time so horrified by all the carnage around us that we couldn’t help but scream out loud. I guess that, in a sick, twisted way, I can understand their nickname for us.”

“Are you talking about you being temporarily named as Banshee?”

“Yeah, that. Instead of seeing a woman grieving the loss of her family all that they saw was potential for lab experiments and shit. Making shit up about us disappearing like fog.”

“Why did they think you had disappeared?” Toriel asked.

“Probably because I wasn’t going to stick around while our sister could still be alive. To this day we’re not sure how in the nine rings of hell we managed to carry our sister the way we did. We took her to a hospital. All they had to say was that she seemed to be in a coma. Once we saw the hefty price we’d have to pay for life support… we knew we needed our job more than ever if we wanted to keep our sister alive. We moved away right away. I guess that, by the time they figured out who we were or might be, we were already long gone. It was only after we got our sister into a hospital with a private room of her own that we looked back on all that we had left behind. We wanted to return to claim our mother’s and grandpa’s bodies. But then I decided that we should check out about whomever decided to kill our family with their actions. By then no one had found out yet about the veteran being in the Oceanarium, so we still didn’t have any leads on who might have done that. Sure, it turned out that it hadn’t even been about the veteran when we actually dug for clues but yeah… Miranda used some unconventional methods to get the information. It’s up to her if she wants to tell you later or not. Once we found out how dangerous these guys were… we just couldn’t go back there. They were searching for us. They wanted to know how we managed to survive that blast. We used… our ‘unconventional method’ to erase our path from Portugal to here and decided to lay low.” Rajani said. 

She then looked even more miserable than before as she added.

“One of Mir’s greatest regrets was never giving our family a proper burial. It’s not enough that she blames herself for them being there in the first place, but she also blames herself for not putting herself at risk just to give them a half-decent grave. She even blames herself for the fucking scar, for christ’s sake!”

“Scar?” Undyne asked.

“Oh, I guess we’ve been wearing pants all of the time. The only time we wore something short was that belt disguised as skirt you and your girlfriend gave us. I guess that your focus was somewhere else other than our leg.” Rajani commented.

She then proceeded to lift one of the legs of her pants to show a distorted scar running down the calf where the muscle tissue was thicker.

“I think a piece of our grandpa’s wheelchair might have been blasted our way or something. It was a very twisted piece of metal. Even though we shouldn’t have, we pulled it out. We couldn’t possibly run with that shit in our leg.”

“Wait, you shouldn’t take stuff out of your wounds? Why? That doesn’t make sense.” Undyne asked. “How will you heal with that there?”

“Well, we should only take something that is stuck inside us in a controlled environment and surrounded by professional help.” Something about her voice sounded different… “The object could be serving as a plug for a major artery or vein and, by removing it, you also unplug it and could bleed out in mere minutes, if not seconds.”

“miranda. are you ok?” Sans rushed over to her side to check on her. 

That explained why she was sounding different. It was Mirandy who was speaking now.

“As ok as I can be, I guess.” She said, sounding much weaker now that she wasn’t explaining such a simple fact. “I see… that Raj has briefed you?”

They all nodded.

“Good. I don’t really want to have to talk about what I saw that day. All that blood… All those people… The only survivors were the people that had been standing behind me, mu sister included, it seems.” She said in the same quiet voice. “I see that there are still somethings that Raj decided to leave for me to say… Do you… want to know them?”

“Not if you don’t want to tell them.”

“The worst of it is already out there. “

“RAJANI DID MENTION YOU HAD A METHOD YOU USED TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE GROUP.”

“There was a guy that was a whizz at computers in IADE. He wasn’t in Design like me, but he had been pretty… interested in my body. He finished at the same time as me and was working in New York so I stopped by. I…” She hesitated. “Well, it’s not like you don’t already know I’m the lowest person in the world, right?” But before anyone could protest her self-depreciation she continued. “He wanted me. So… I told him he could have me for a night so long as he did all that I needed to be done. He hacked into the organization’s chatroom and taught me how to do it myself and then made my trail disappear. I… I got him pretty drunk. I did it on purpose. Though I was ready, in case it failed, to go through with it. But it worked. Soon he was too drunk to even know which way was up. I did make out with him to give my story more credibility. Then I stripped us both naked and pretended I had slept with him. He never doubted my version, though he did try to insist on a ‘second round’. I got away as fast as I could and never saw him since then. Doesn’t change the fact that I would have done it if my plan A had failed, though, so feel free to be disgusted. I am disgusting!”

“no, you’re not!”

“HECK NO, PUNK! He’s the disgusting one!”

“Indeed, he didn’t care if he was taking advantage of your grief, young one. That’s no way to treat a woman.”

“YOU AREN’T DISGUSTING! YOU ARE MY FRIEND AND I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT NONE OF MY FRIENDS IS DISGUSTING SO NEITHER ARE YOU, SINCE YOU ARE ALREADY MY FRIEND!”

“You were just desperate, my child. He really shouldn’t have taken advantage of that. And he wouldn’t have, had he been a decent gentleman!”

“I have no idea what you were trying to say but YOOOO, you are definitely not any of that. You are totally cool!”

Mirandy seemed humbled by their words so Frisk merely smiled at them, going for a hug. Unlike MK they knew what Miranda had been implying.

She wound up crying again.

None of them had ever suspected she had been this fragile still. She told them she had gotten better since her boyfriend. It made them shudder how much worse she’d thought of herself back then if this was mild in comparison. Once she was done, she said.

“I should get ready to visit my sister.”

“don’t worry. I’ll take you later.”

“But…”

“nope, you aren’t going alone!”

“HECK NO PUNK! You are going to stay where we can see you!”

Mirandy smiled a real smile at last as she hugged the both of them.

Frisk took the chance to give her privacy. Most of the others were also leaving the living room to go about their chores, not wanting to overwhelm her.

But, even as they cheerfully went about doing their homework, Frisk couldn’t help but remember what Dad and Alphys had told them about the group that had attacked her. The humans in that exposition what been nothing but collateral damage. Nothing more than… play things… And Frisk couldn’t help but feel sick about it because once in time gone by they had thought the same thing of the monsters. But unlike them, those men had no intention of giving your family back to you…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Miranda is the Banshee. I made her wear a yellow dress for the sole purpose of deceiving you into thinking of Yellow lady XD
> 
> Those who read 'The Fallen Ones' (the companion reading to this fic) might recognise Rowan being mentioned.
> 
> Rajani and Sans bickering is just precious.


	43. Chapter 42: You Are Pulled from The Wreckage of Your Silent Reverie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda needs copious amounts of physical contact as confort (in short, Miranda needs a hug), and she also talks about the person she killed to get that 1 exp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now onto to the recovery from that traumatic experience (it's gonna take a few chapters before she can fully recover).

You felt comfortable hugging the fish and skeleton monsters. In fact, you would have felt comfortable hugging anyone in that house, maybe even Grillby and his daughter Fuku. It didn’t matter. All you knew was that you needed the physical touch right now. You didn’t want to think and the only feeling you wanted to focus on was their warmth against you and nothing more.

You mind was a wreck and you couldn’t think straight for long enough without having those images of gore fill up your head so all you had left was your physical sensations. You held onto them as if your life depended on it. A year back when you had flashbacks this bad you had held onto you pack. In fact, it was odd that they weren’t around yet but you weren’t really concerned with that. Not now, anyway, because that implied that you were thinking about something and right now you didn’t want to think about anything.

And then Alphys rushed into the house looking every bit as panicked as you had been. Once she spotted you on the couch she literally almost drooped to the floor in relief.

Then, with a strong tug at the lab coat she was still wearing, she stood up again and walked towards you looking very serious and determined. You looked up at her in your dazed state and lifted one of your arms towards her in invitation to your small group hug. She seemed reluctant in dropping her serious facade but gave in and glomped the living shit out of you and your hug-mates.

“W-w-what happened?” She asked. “I need t-to know everything.” She insisted before either of the other two could give her a half-baked summary of the situation.

“Well…” Undyne started and you hid your face in Sans’ fluffy jacket to muffle the sounds. “Perhaps it’s best if I talk to you someplace else….”

You didn’t want to let go but she pulled herself off of your hands easily. She was pretty strong, after all. You forced yourself not to whimper at that and clutched Sans even harder. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to mind it much and merely hugged you back. You had a small moment of clarity in which you realized you were acting too much like a child but you decided to ignore it for now. 

The two women left to another room and Sans positioned you so that you were in his lap. You briefly pondered on how that was a bit too intimate to what you were used to with him, but you quickly dismissed the thought.

“hei, brownie. how are you doing?” He asked. You grunted at the nickname but replied anyway.

“Not great. Better than the norm for these attacks, though.”

“good. that’s good.” He said and then, after pondering for a bit, added. “how can i help?”

“You already are.” You replied simply but, looking at him, you could tell he needed something more to do. He was feeling useless at his own inability to help you, wasn’t he? You sighed and added. “Just… keep me distracted from depressive trains of thought.”

“well, that seems easy enough to do. i…” But just as he was about to, no doubt, tell you a joke, the scale duo returned.

“I-I-I’ve been briefed of your circumstances and what happened today. I’ll still need to check your soul, t-though.”

“Because of the antimatter?” You asked. 

There it was! They were going to use you as a lab rat. You should have been used to it by now. Heck, you had been prepared for the eventuality of it, as slim it had been. At least… You had been in the beginning.

When you’d first came into this household you had been so accustomed to the ‘use or be used’ motto to which you had fallen prey to that you had no doubt in your mind that you were ready to let them use you as they deemed fit. It seemed like a fair price in return for all of the kindness they had shown you. Besides, you were already so used to being used that it hadn’t really mattered back then. And you’d never felt alright with the role of using instead of the role of being used, so you came to terms with the fact that you were a pretty usable person a long time ago.

You befriended everyone in the house. What was the use of living with them if you didn’t get along, after all? But… you had never expected to fall so deeply for all of them. It was always meant to be a relationship more akin to what you used to call acquaintances.

Acquaintances… That’s what you used to call people you knew only a bit, back when friends had mattered more than anything and you refused to think of anyone not that close to you as a friend.

You had started calling everyone a friend when friendship stopped mattering after you were betrayed so deeply by you best friend and your boyfriend six years ago. But… somewhere along the line… with these people… You’d somehow let them get too close to you. You’d somehow let yourself hold them dear. You’d pretended to be oblivious to it and Rajani played along beautifully. She always played along with you, telling you that trying to force you to acknowledge something you weren’t feeling ready to aknowledge would do you more harm than good whenever you asked her why she wasn’t calling you out on your own bullshit.

So, even if she knew the truth, even if she knew you knew or, at least, suspected it, she would still play along with your purposeful obliviousness. And when you had no choice but to admit it to yourself, she was always there to help you along in coming to terms with it.

And right now? Now you couldn’t deny how deep your friendship with all of them had gotten anymore.

And that was why… you were no longer ok with being used. Why it hurt you so badly that Alphys was asking you to be her lab rat for the antimatter project.

“N-no! N-not at all! If I really wanted t-to see if you had something different in your s-soul I could j-just observe the soul scans I already have of you. W-with your permission, t-that is?” Alphys replied, surprising you.

“Huh!?” _What was that?_

“O-oh, yeah, you don’t know how soul scans w-work. W-well, they basically scan everything but when I check them I must focus on a part in particular to see the particular stats associated with it. S-so I could simply open up the scans I already have t-to see other s-stats I haven’t c-checked yet.” She explains, leaving you flabbergasted. “O-only with your permission, though!!!.” She hastily reassured you once again.

“Oh. Ok… Why then?” You ask. So… she wasn’t going to use you as a lab rat?

“B-because they healed your soul directly.” She said.

You were… confused? Why was healing wrong?

“What’s wrong with them healing me?” You ask.

Alphys proceeded to explain that healing small bruises and minor cuts were fine, but healing someone directly when you aren’t a certified healer was very much similar to operating on a patient without having the slightest idea of what you are doing. She also compared smaller scale healing as knowing first aid measures that also included some stitching. As for why healing food worked when nothing else did, it was because it was mostly devoid of emotional orientation. She said that, while healing, a monster had to direct their magic using their emotions, which was why it was so difficult. One minor slip and an unfixable mistake could happen. Magic food, however, depended on the monster’s feelings solely to decide how potent it would be and all the magic potential would assemble the damaged magic or, in the humans’ case, damaged cells in the way that was most natural to them automatically.

When it came to healing souls, things got even more complicated. Instead of affecting someone physically, they could come to develop debilitating emotional deficits or feeling too much of certain emotions, both leading to severe behavioral issues.

The problem with all of the distortions caused by defective healing would stick almost permanently to a person and while physical deformities could still be corrected, soul deformities couldn’t, or at least not as easily. This was why when Toriel healed your bullet wound from the conference you had gotten a scar but using monster candy to heal your cut up hand from when you were attacked by those thirteen thugs onlu left a slight discoloration that vanished in no time at all.

With that said, the fact that so many people had directly healed you at the same time was very much concerning, hence why she wanted to check your soul for damage to try to fix it before it became permanent. 

You accepted.

“G-good! L-let’s go to your room.” She started for the stairs.

You knew you had to follow her and that this was supposed to be a private moment but… you still didn’t want to let go of the skeleton just yet. Sans had let go of you so that you could follow her, though. After a moment of indecision, you finally stood up and carried the skeleton in your arms, much to everyone’s surprise.

Undyne burst laughing as soon as you left the living room but at the moment you couldn’t care less. Sans was blushing up a storm, which was adorable, so you didn’t really mind. Alphys seemed even more nervous, but mostly just like she was about to burst into fangirl mode. So long as she didn’t, you couldn’t care less. You probably still wouldn’t care less even if she did, though. Basically, unless it had to do with your basic needs of cuddling, you really couldn’t be bothered at the moment to think of the consequences of your actions.

You entered your bedroom and sat on the bed, still cradling the skeleton to you. Alphys sat on a box nearby, her mirth and fangirling momentarily gone.

“Uuuuumm… M-Miranda. You do k-know that taking out y-your soul is a private matter f-for your eyes alone, r-right?”

You pouted still clutching the skeleton but, with a heavy sigh you finally released him and proceed to curl into a ball, hugging your knees to your chest. You knew you were being childish but…

“Do you really have to go?” You asked Sans as he was about to leave.

That seemed to fluster him. He looked at Alphys as if she had all the answers to his needs. She decided to intervene.

“A-are you sure y-you want Sans here f-for this? It is a v-very private m-matter.” She asked you.

“… dun wanna be alone…” You said softly. “Besides, it’s not like y’all haven’t seen me at my worst yet.”

With that Sans ploped down next to you and held your hand.

“let’s get this over with alph.” He said, using his free hand to rub your back soothingly.

“O-ok.”

She began pulling on your soul and it flowed out more easily than usual. Then again you still felt a bit off and detached from everything so it made sense that your soul felt detached from your body as well. Alphys put some gloves on and opened her suitcase, taking out her soul scanner. She floated your soul to the scanner as you watched curiously, leaning against Sans, who was looking bluer by the second, his eyes also locked on your soul, looking even more curious than you.

Alphys turned on her machine and clicked on a few buttons and eventually it started to print something in a paper. She took it and read the results.

“Everything seems to be the same with the exception of one thing alone. It seems that your wound, this one here,” She pointed to the bigger crack on your soul, her stutter once again forgotten. “has healed a bit, which is good. I think that having so many different emotions clouding the green magic might have made it act as food magic, only a bit more effectively than regular food magic. Emotional wounds aren’t easy to heal, not even with magic food or a skilled healer. They take time and a person’s own soul strength. Your scar seems to have faded a bit too. Good. It seems we won’t need to perform an emergency intervention on you.”

She pushed your soul towards you and you took it, inspecting the changes. The large horizontal crack used to reach the core of your soul. Now it seemed that it almost reached it but fell short. You felt tempted to touch it but you knew you would only relive all that you were trying to avoid thinking about. Alphys was also right about the scar. It had faded a lot from what you had noticed. 

Sans and Alphys released a strangled sound as you touched your scar but you ignored them. It still hurt a bit but… everything was… alright? It was no worse than a fading bruise, at least. Satisfied, you took your soul back in.

“Everything is alright with it.” You say, finally feeling a bit sure of yourself. “It hurts but it’s alright.” You leaned back into Sans, who was pulling at his collar. You lock eyes with Alphys. “Where…”

“Y-yes?” She asks

“Where’s my pack?” You asked. “They… They usually help me out with all of this.”

“i think they were outside frolicking about when you had the attack. i don’t think anyone remembered to let them all back in.” Sans said.

“W-when I arrived I saw them. T-they were frantically trying to get in. I j-just… W-well, I wasn’t s-sure if you w-wanted them in or not.”

“Please let them in. If I have them with me I can stop making Sans uncomfortable.” You said and tried to giggle a bit, but it came off as hollow.

“already trying t get rid of me? you _wound_ me. ” He retorted and made himself even more comfortable in your bed, showing no intention of going anywhere.

“You know it’s not that, you goof ball. I know you have other stuff to do and… well… I’m a big girl. I’ve dealt with this on my own. I was a bit too needy before but I’m better now. You really don’t need to stay.” You try to explain. You didn’t want to be a burden to him.

“nah. i think i'll _hound_ you for a bit. i wasn’t _kitten_ around when i said you wounded me. now i have to get you back for it. ”

“Really, Sans?!”

“really. when i say i have a _bone to pick_ with someone, I _mew_ -n it.” He winked.

“O-ok. I already t-told Undyne to let them in.” Alphys said.

Apparently, she had texted Undyne while Sans was tossing puns at you. It hadn’t taken any time for you to hear the several paws galloping up to your room. Alphys had to hurry away from the door just to escape the barrage of beasts that immediately jumped to your bed. They mostly ignored Sans at first, focusing on your well-being. Alphys left to spend some time with Undyne, probably to discuss about your condition.

As soon as they were assured you were ok, the dogs started licking at Sans’ skull while the cats rubbed themselves on him while purring. Once all the formalities were over and done with, they all laid down around you two. You relaxed a bit now that they were there with you. Your mind was starting to work normally again, slowly getting back to your usual thought process. That meant you were starting to feel some shame over your actions.

You sneaked a peek at Sans’ face, trying to gouge his mood. Why wasn’t he asking anything. Sure, Rajani had told them not to talk about the explosion but… wouldn’t he want to ask if there was something different with your physiology to resist antimatter or something? You knew that he was worried about the antimatter bomb. You were purposefully pretending to be oblivious, not being actually stupid. 

Yet he seemed to be fine with just being there with you…

…

He hadn’t asked again about your EXP either and you knew that was what had initially worried him and made him wary of you.

…

“The name was Josiah.” You said.

He was startled at your sudden declaration.

“your sister’s?” He asked.

“Pff. Nah! My sister’s name is Carina.” You chuckled at him over the ridiculousness of it. Then you sobered up and finally added. “No. I was talking about the man I killed.”

“…oh.”

“I started living on the streets so that I could save up as much money as I could. As you know, a lot of the money I earn is already going towards the maintenance of Carina’s life support. And whatever of the remaining 4 thousand that I don’t spend on me and my pack I put aside in case I die before she wakes up. She has around a year or so to live after my death, as far as money is concerned. It’s not much but it’s what I managed to save up, plus the insurance money.” You explained. He seemed to wince at the casual way you talked about your hypothetical death. “Living on the streets was hard. I was smart, so I managed to stay away from several dangerous situations. But living on the streets, even with my pack and Rajani to help me, was lonely. And then I met Josiah.”

You shifted a bit to cradle Artemis in your arms as you leaned your back against Sans’ chest. You felt a bit tempted to sit on his lap but you were now aware enough to know that was stupid. Sans hummed as to let you know he understood the story so far.

“Josiah didn’t seem threatening. In fact, he seemed t like a downright nice person with a massive stroke of bad luck. And because I was feeling lonely… I decided: Why not? Why not share my sleeping spot with that man? He seemed nice enough and it would stop me from feeling lonely too. It also helped keep hobos away from it during the day while I was working, so I wouldn’t have to worry as much about my pack. So… he stayed!” You told him. “For a while things were fine. Not to say that I trusted him completely or anything, but I felt I had a kinship of sorts with him. We shared stories about ourselves and so on. The only thing that made me a bit uncomfortable about him was all his flirting and wanting to get close. You know, in a physical way. I knew what he wanted, but not only am I simply not interested in a relationship for now, at least not while my life is basically in shambles, but he was also old enough to be my father. So yeah, it was a big nope for me. He always took my rejections in stride. He didn’t seem overly bothered, but… You can probably already guess that he was and was just very good at hiding it.”

“did he… force himself on you?” Sans asked, eye sockets turning into black voids.

“No. That would have been better than what he actually did. At least _I_ was capable of fighting back.” You replied. “It turned out that he was part of a gang. Only a small fry, though. Like really small. Small enough that he wasn’t really that missed. He was trying to lay low after some job gone wrong in another city and chose Auburn to stay at. I, of course, didn’t know any of that. When it was finally safe for him to return he decided that he was done with me but, before he left, and while I was at work… he took a knife and made a mess of my Artemis. She almost died. I was surprised when she took to you all so easily. It seems that there’s not a monster she doesn’t trust. She was so wary of people after that.” You paused for a bit. “Dusk was the one who found her. She came to my work place and nagged the hell out of me. That wasn’t normal behavior for her so I followed her and found Artemis bleeding out. I rushed her to the vet and was questioned to no end. They were afraid I might have been the one hurting her. They called the police and they found a bloodied note near the pool of her blood at the crime scene.”

Artemis had enough of you holding her and jumped out of your arms, pacing towards the foot of the bed. You let her be and scooped up Dusk instead.

“In the note, he clearly stated that since I didn’t let him ‘wreck my pussy’, he just had to wreck a different one.” You hadn’t been amused at that pun and Sans seemed to agree with you on this one. “That proved my innocence and it was also how I found out about his gang shtick after the police investigated the finger prints on the paper. I was… quite upset. And so was Rajani. She went into instant rage mode and wanted to murder the bastard. If you ask her, she’ll take all the fault onto herself but I’m very much to blame as well. You see, I could have stopped her but… after seeing what he did to Artemis. After losing so much and now being on the verge of losing one more person because I was too kind to a complete stranger… Like I said, I was very, very upset. I could have stopped Rajani from going after him and killing him. I purposefully didn’t. I just watched as she slit his throat and left after wiping away all of the evidence that we had been there.”

With that said you leaned away, giving him a chance to run away should he want to. 

“And that’s it. That’s how I have 1 EXP. You wanted to know and now you do!” You said lightly, trying to mock the situation. In truth, you were fearing his reaction more than anything. “Pretty pathetic, right? I killed a man over a cat.”

You expected him to go away. You had just admitted to murdering a man in cold blood, after all. You didn’t expect him to pull you down from your sitting upright position into him once again.

“get some rest. you’re tired.” He merely said.

“Sans!? What the heck? I just told you I’m a murderer!”

“yup, but i also know you love your cats like they’re family and if someone killed my brother… i wouldn’t know what i’d do to them, but it would probably be a lot worse than what you did.”

That shut you up momentarily.

“…why are you being so nice to me…” You ask. “Why are all of you treating me so nice?”

“simple. because you deserve it.” He answered brushing your cheek with a phalanx.

You can’t help but blush at that action. A knock in the door interrupts your attempt at denial. The door opened partially and Papyrus and MK peered inside.

“SORRY TO INTRUDE, BUT WE WERE WONDERING IF WE COULD JOIN YOU TWO. CAN WE?” 

“O-of course!” You said, still a bit shaken. The two of them piled up on the best, snuggling you as close as they could with all the animals in there.

“So… what are you doing, dude?” MK asked.

“Just talking for now.” You told him.

“PERHAPS THIS CALLS FOR WATCHING A TELEVISION BROADCAST OR A FILM.”

You pondered on what to watch that could potentially entertain all of you. You weren’t sure if your final choice was a good one, though.

You had Sans float your laptop to you and started played episodes of ‘Science of Stupid’ for them to see. It seemed to do the trick for now. 

You could barely believe that you were surrounded by such warm people. People who seemed to genuinely care about you.

 _It won’t last._ A part of you tried to tell you, the mantra being one you knew very well.

But, despite your negativity, a much bigger part of you seemed to thaw under all the warmth around you and, for the first time in a long time you finally managed to think: 

_Perhaps I might deserve this after all…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Several things to take into account. Closer to the beginning of this fic Miranda said she wouldn't mind being used by the monsters. That is because that was her experience on friendships from her ex-friend Sophie. The fact that she resents the mere thought of it now reveals just how much she came to care about all of them.   
> She usually isn't one to jump to conclusions all that often but because of how emotionally fragile she is right now, and given past experiences, that is why her first reacting to Alphys asking after her soul is to ask if it's related to the antimatter and fear that she is going to be used as a test subject. That is also one of her biggest fears and it will still come into play later but she won't be as dominated by the negativity regarding it.
> 
> Poor Sans, he just can't get a break. XD All the thoughts running through his head when Mir asked him to stay. Poor guy couldn't resist her pleading but he must be feeling guilty for staying since he wasn't being 100% pure (what with his massive in-love brain? how could he not thing of all of the soul related implications XD). This is being quite the emotional roller coaster. Not too long before Miranda was close to dead and now this? XD
> 
> Miranda's soul is finally starting to heal! ^w^


	44. Chapter 43: May You find Some Comfort Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda continues recovering from her flashback and we get some fluff with everyone's favorite flower!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soul healing continues!!! Also tsundere Flowey FTW!

Sans had to leave for his job. He still wanted to take you to visit your sister the following day but for now he still had far more pressing responsibilities. This time you let him go. Papyrus also had to go. Something about being presentable on his first day at work. MK stayed with you and watched some more episodes of ‘Science of Stupid’ but eventually fell asleep snuggling into you.

At times Toriel, Undyne or Alphys would check on you and Asgore did bring some cups of tea once in a while. Frisk hadn’t visited you yet, though. Toriel said something about them being in the midst of making a ‘get well soon’ card for you.

There was one visitor you hadn’t been expecting, though.

Flowey opened your bedroom door with his vines and swung himself in, landing his flower pot on your bed side table.

“Hey, Flowey. Wasn’t expecting you.” You tell him.

“I’m… I’m only checking on you for Frisk!” He tells you with a massive pout.

His little flower face seemed a bit red, though, so you weren’t quite sure if that was the whole truth.

“Well, I’m doing fine, as you can see.” You smile at him.

“Yeah…” He paused as if not sure of what to do with himself. “What are you watching?”

“Science of Stupid. It’s a program in which you see videos of people failing at certain tasks and a guy tells us in the most hilarious ways why they failed according to science.” You explain.

“Sounds boring.”

You pondered on that. Then, after another lightbulb idea, you searched for another different series to show him. 

“What about this?”

On screen was displayed a course that people tried to traverse with the words “Total Wipeout” on top.

“What’s it about?” Flowey asks.

“People failing this course mostly. It starts with the first round, which weeds out the nonathletic people-” You started.

“That’d better not be a pun about me.” Flowey warned, making you feel confused.

“What-” And then you remembered what you had just said and sputtered. “I hadn’t even noticed that. Oh wow!”

Flowey seemed to accept your words as being completely sincere and you continued describing the show. He did seem interested on watching it so you started playing the first episode of the first season. He was surprised at the quantity of nut-jobs in there and commented that Undyne and Papyrus would want to participate in one of those if they ever saw it.

You knew that Flowey commented that as a way to tell you not to let them join but you sort of wanted to see how they would do there. And you somehow doubted that ‘Total Wipeout’ would be as discriminatory towards monster participants as the Olympic Games. You might even consider joining in… though you were pretty much guaranteed to fail from the start. But it might be something fun to do with everyone.

You tried to imagine how everyone in the house would do and couldn’t help but start chuckling.

“What?”

“Can you imagine Sans trying to do this? I mean, if Papyrus went, he would most likely convince Sans to do it too. He would probably forfeit right away, though.” You told him.

You two had fun trying to come up with ways that Sans would be forced to actually participate in that race, like the prize being a whole year worth of ketchup or something, and how he would act on certain obstacles if magic wasn’t allowed. You mostly took it as a comedy thing but the scenarios in which Sans got hurt seemed to amuse Flowey a lot more. You did feel a bit uncomfortable with the thought of Sans getting hurt, after all that he had done for you, but… it seemed to help Flowey relax somewhat. 

You then switched to everyone else’s reaction to the obstacles and you even joked around by saying how Toriel would freak out when Frisk was the one in the course, even thought it was pretty safe… aside from the Sucker Punch one. You heard that once there was a woman that had to go home, even though she qualified, because of that one obstacle. Yeah, Toriel would probably burn the Sucker Punch to the ground.

Flowey disagreed, though. He said that, if Toriel let Frisk spar with Undyne once in a while, then she certainly wouldn’t oppose a lame Sucker Punch wall.

…

He had a point.

You were about to pause the video to ask how he thought he would do on a competition like that when he was stuck to a flower pot when you noticed him looking a bit distracted. You were worried you had said something wrong. You paused the video and he didn’t even seem to notice.

“What’s the matter, Sweetie?” You asked.

He jolted at your sudden inquiry and looked at you.

“What’s with the nickname?” He bit back a bit moodily.

“Oh, it’s just something I call kids sometimes, especially when I’m worried about them. I can call you something else if you want?”

“Worried… Why are you worried about me?! You are the one who almost died today!!” He suddenly screamed at you succeeding in waking MK up.

“Yo… what was that?” He asked still a bit dazed.

“Sorry to have woken you up.” You rushed to say before Flowey could start to cuss at him. “Me and Flowercup are going to need to talk privately for a while. Do you mind leaving for a bit, Sweatie?”

“Flowercup…?” Flowey mouthed with a frown.

“Oh, you sure?” MK asked, looking sideways at the frowning flower.

“Yup!” You nodded sunny-ly.

“Ok, if you say so. But call me if you start having another flashback or something. I’ll help you just like you helped me!!!” MK said with all the certainty in the world.

“Sure will, Sweetie.”

Looking very much satisfied at your reply, MK left the room.

“Flowercup?” Flowey asked again, this time louder.

“No good either? It thought it might be better than calling you buttercup… all things considered…” Chara had died from buttercup poisoning, after all. Though you had come up with the new nickname because of buttercups. 

Because of the instance Asgore had told you about of when Asriel and Chara had used buttercups instead of cups of butter while baking and accidentally poisoned him. To be honest it was more of a punny nickname using the word ‘flour’ but perhaps Flowey wouldn’t appreciate being reminded of poisoning his father so you changed it to ‘Flowercups’.

You would never tell him how you came up with the new nickname. NEVAH!

“No, Flowercup is fine… so long as the Smiley Trashbag is not around to hear… Or Fish Breath.” He conceded.

“Ok!” You smiled at him.

“I don’t understand why you’re worried about me of all people, though! You were the one who almost died!”

And back to the same sentence that had woken MK up.

“I know. It’s not the first time this has happened. I just never realized that I was actually dying whenever it happened.” You told him. “It’s kind of… grounding in a way.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it means that… all this time… I’ve been killing Rajani without knowing.”

“What?”

“Flowey… You know who has HP from the both of us, don’t you?”

“…”

“That’s right. Each time I lose HP it’s Raj who gets hurt.” You tell him. “It’s no wonder she got so exhausted after each of our flashbacks. Even right now, with Toriel’s healing pies, she is still so exhausted. She has been asleep since I took over. And considering how protective she is over me, this means a lot!”

“… yeah.” Flowey nodded.

You remembered how he told you that Rajani reminded him of Chara a lot. You could tell what he was thinking about just then.

“I’m not even supposed to be alive. And believe me, I have no freaking idea how I managed to stay alive when my side of the soul has no HP at all. Like, what is wrong with me!”

“At least you still have a soul. And a body too. I’m just an unfeeling fragment of consciousness of someone who’s long dead trapped inside a flower.”

“I may not know you that well, compared to the others. But, for all that it’s worth, you are more than just a fragment to me. You are you. And even if you are struggling with your feelings that doesn’t make you any less of a person.” You told him.

“It’s not struggling with my feelings when I literally can’t feel any love.” He shot back.

“And I don’t believe that.”

“Why?”

“Because if you were incapable of feeling love you wouldn’t still love Chara as a sibling, now would you.”

“…” Flowey merely stared at you wide eyed for a while. “You are actually the first person to say that to me.”

“I am?” you ask surprised. “What about Frisk?”

“They never pointed that out about me. They mostly just wanted me to come with them because they considered me their friend too, and they didn’t want to leave anyone behind.” Flowey replied.

“Well… I’m sure they must have thought it and just didn’t know how to put it into words.”

“Perhaps… Wait. Why the heck are you the one comforting me!? You’re the one who almost died!”

“And you’re the one who actually died.” You wittily shot back.

“That’s not the point! Besides, I’m alive now!”

“And so am I.”

“Argh! You’re insufferable!”

“And here I thought I was an idiot with a delicious soul.”

“Y-you still remember that!?” Flowey asked, red faced.

…

You really should stop questioning the mechanics of blushing monsters…

“Why wouldn’t I remember? Rajani loved teasing you and I must admit that your blushing face is quite adorable.” You told him.

“WHAT!?”

You chuckled a bit at his expression.

A knock interrupted whatever he was going to say next and Undyne peered inside.

“Hey. Everything alright here?” She asked.

“Yup.”

“Frisk is asking if they can come in.” She explained.

“Sure.”

Frisk rushed inside from between Undyne’s legs, almost making her trip and fall. With uncanny agility, they jumped up to your bed, clasping a folded paper that seemed to be covered in several doodles and with several bits of paper glued onto it.

They offered you the paper. It was a get-well card. 

…

You really didn’t want to cry again, dammit! But the only time you’d ever received handcrafted get-well cards had been when your teacher had once forced the whole class to do it. You knew none of them had been meaningful. Not even Sophie’s. Just another thing the teacher forced them to do, you guess.

But this?

“It’s the most beautiful get-well card I’ve received.” You said, eyes brimming with unshod tears.

You hugged Frisk after setting the card on the bed side table. You were pretty sure that Flowey was checking the card out while you were distracted by hugging Frisk, but you didn’t mind. All he would see was a drawing of everyone in the house. Even your pack and Rajani. And all of them had souls glued on their chests, except for the dogs and cats. Instead, Frisk had written that they didn’t know what regular animal souls looked like. What had really choked you up was what Frisk had written underneath the drawings.

_-Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are.-_

There was no mistake about what the kid was offering you. And a part of you desperately wanted to believe in this.

…

And you were too tired of resisting to continue denying it any longer.

You had a new family now. 

It will take a long time for you to get comfortable here. It’ll take more than some words for you to truly believe it with your whole being. It’ll take a lot of trust to let them all in even further and believe in their every word.

But, if only in this moment alone,…

It is yours.


	45. Chapter 44: A Forest of Snowdrops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a new development with Miranda's soul! Also, Sans takes her to the underground. Also, soul head-cannon facts exposition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, for this title there's no songs but I've decided that Miranda's flower will be Snowdrops. (more on that in the end chapter notes.)  
> Explosive nosebleed brought by this post: http://renrink.tumblr.com/post/134188901028/l-looks-like-i-walked-in-at-a-bath-time-heheh-if

The rest of the day went fine. You eventually felt good enough to leave your room and your pack wasn’t as clingy with you as usual. Your recovery time was remarkably much shorter than what you remembered from over a year ago. You supposed that it helped having all these wonderful people around you, supporting you to the very end in a way you have never experienced before.

Papyrus was the first one to return of the two brothers, a bag of fancy clothing dangling from his arm. You took the dogs out with him and Undyne and you watched as the two of them got used to training animals under your guidance. Papyrus still very much wanted to train them with mazes and puzzles. You told him you might allow that so long as there are no deadly traps or things that might hurt your dogs. Their safety and well-being was the most important. You demanded full power of veto towards all of the eventual puzzles if you deemed them unsafe or damaging.

Secretly you were pondering on whether you would film it and put it on youtube. Not only would it be popular as heck, since cute animals have the tendency of attracting views like honey to flies, but it might also be a good way to showcase Papyrus’ puzzle making abilities. 

You managed to convince Toriel to let you help with dinner, but it was hard since she wanted you to rest, still a bit afraid you would almost die again. Even so, she only let you do the bare minimum.  
Half way through, she convinced you into watching the kids, as if there weren’t already four adults doing that in some way or another. That goat lady was sneaky with her ‘nudging’. 

You were already all gathered around the dinner table when Sans finally returned from work. He did his usual greetings and then suddenly he stopped, staring at you with an intensity that left you feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

“IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT, BROTHER?” Papyrus asked.

“your, uh… your aura is different.” Sans told you.

Everyone around you gasped with urgency and worry.

“O-Oh, no!! We m-must go get the scanner r-right away!” Alphys said, standing up, not even bothering to wipe her mouth from the sauce that was still there.

“PUNK! DON’T YOU DIE ON ME!” Undyne started shaking you like a maraca.

“I’ll go get the pie!” Toriel added.

You were merely confused. You were feeling fine. More than fine, actually. 

“it’s not that!” Sans interrupted, speaking louder than what was usual for him. “it’s just the color. it’s different.”

“It is?” You asked, feeling very much surprised. According to Alphys a soul doesn’t just change color. You having double personality was already odd enough but now your personal aura was changing color too? 

You stood up from the table and rushed to your room before anyone else could say anything. Once there you closed the door behind you and summoned your soul from your chest. It was a bit rough when Rajani wasn’t there to help you but it still came out easily enough. 

At first it seemed no different than usual. Rajani’s side was that same royal blue with a greyish cast and for your side it was still… grey…?

It was grey, but not really. There was an undertone, so soft you almost couldn’t see it. It looked… greenish? It did look a lot like it was green. What was that?

Your thoughts got interrupted when a muffled and very male squeak was heard inside your bedroom.

You turned around just in time to see Sans disappear.

…

Ok… 

“RUDE!” You shouted out to wherever he might be.

You drew your soul back inside of you and left the room, feeling both a little angry, a little flustered and embarrassed, and a little curious of the look on his face.

He was back in the kitchen trying to shrink into his jacket as the others seemed to be intent on questioning him.

“Where is Miranda!?”

“I-is she alright?”

“BROTHER? WHY ARE YOU HAVING A MAGICAL BLEEDING?”

Magical bleeding?

You rushed to his side to see his nose hole dripping with sparkling blue magic. You guessed that seeing your souls without any mental preparation was too much for him?

“Sans are you ok?” You ask, bending down so that you were face to face with him to examine his bleeding, holding out a napkin to clean it.

As soon as he laid his eyes on you his face became even bluer and started to cry.

Wait…

Those weren’t tears. You’d seen his tears before and while they were still cyan in coloring, they were far less thick and sparkly comparing to the liquid falling from his eye sockets now. Was this blood as well?

“Oh my!” Toriel gasped.

“Punk, what happened up there?” Undyne asked you. “He said he was coming to see what was wrong and came back like this.”

“He… may have teleported in on me checking my soul out for changes…”

After a moment of silence from everyone, Undyne started guffawing like a mad woman, drowning everyone else's sounds of understanding and humor, one step away from actually rolling around on the floor laughing. Sans’ face was now completely covered with his jacket as his magical blood kept flowing.

“Oh shush, you! If he hadn’t teleported in, you would have broken in and then you would be the one getting a complete view of my naked soul.” You retorted back, making Undyne choke with your comment.

She recovered fast.

“Well, it would only be fair if I did, considering how many times my fiancé has done the same.” She said with a smirk.

You merely shrugged, not really that concerned with it. You knew she was too faithful to Alphys to actually dare you to let her see your soul outside of battle.

“S-so… is t-there anything dif-ferent with your s-soul?” Alphys asked.

“The grey side, my side, is looking a bit greenish.” You said.

“R-really? What did the s-soul script say?”

“Never got to read it. Sans showed up.” 

Sans tried to cover his head even more.

“O-oh!”

“I could try to draw only the stats out but I’ve never tried before so I might mess up.” You said.

“Nah, punk. I’ll do it for you. There’s no need to embarrass more monsters with your ‘naked soul’.” Undyne said cheerily and Sans grunted from where he was turtle-ing his way into his hooded jacket.

“Undyne!” You complained with a smile.

You knew she had phrased it that way just to mess with Sans.

She smiled back at you with a wicked grin and that started to pull on your stats. Aside from the HP, which was now reasonably higher than before, all the other stats remained the same as the first time you had seen them. You then looked at your soul script. That was the one thing that changed every time you observed your soul, usually to match up with your mood at the time. Since you were feeling better you supposed a positive message would appear.

.

>   
>  *Your new family gives you hope.
> 
> *You face the world with a bit more kindness than before.   
> 

.  
.

“D’AWWWWWW! You really think of us like a family?” Undyne said, causing you to blush profusely.

Ok, you were starting to regret letting Undyne getting your stats out. You could definitely feel your cheeks warming up in embarrassment. You looked down to your socked toes, wringing your hands together.

“S-so… what’s the diagnosis?” You asked Alphys, ignoring Undyne as best as you could.

“W-well… the greenish now m-makes sense. K-kindness manifests itself as green in t-the soul. I would need t-to check what your s-soul looks like right now t-to be sure b-but… T-the way you described it… w-well, at least your s-side of it… It sounds a lot l-like a faded soul. R-Rajani’s migh also be slightly faded t-too.” Alphys said.

“Faded soul?”

“It’s inc-creadibly rare on monsters. B-but I’ve read something about it it t-the previous Royal S-scientist’s notes. I’d have t-to search for the r-right ones, though. T-they are all s-still in the underground, u-unfortunately.”

“What exactly is a faded soul?” You ask.

“W-w-well…” Alphys started. “Ask far as m-monsters go a faded soul happens when t-they fall down. F-falling down is when a monster enters a coma, generally when they become too old to continue living, in which they gradually dust away. It c-could also happen when a monster loses all hope and simply lets themselves go. At that moment, the whiteness of the soul dulls to a light grey. I’ve never observed a full fading, that is… what is theorized to be a full fading which, I suppose, would be similar in color to your soul before the green settled in? I don’t know… The soul usually disintegrates before it fades more than a few shades into gray.”

“What about human souls fading?”

“I knew there were written notes about it but they hadn’t really been relevant in the underground. We didn’t exactly get to s-study living human souls there. I can’t trust myself to give you an accurate d-detailed explanation of it. S-sorry.”

“Aw. What about an abridged version?”

“B-basically, when a soul fades it means t-that you are losing your s-soul trait in some way or another.”

“Oh!” You pondered. “But… does that mean that I’m gaining a trait, then?” You ask.

“It s-stands to reason t-that it is that way, yes.”

“Huh. I never really thought of myself as particularly kind, though.”

“that is actually pretty regular for anyone with kindness as a soul trait, regardless of you being a monster or human. you never think of yourselves as kind, even though you are.” Sans piped up from where he was.

He was no longer bleeding and it seemed he had cleaned himself somehow. Looking at the number of napkins on the counter next to him and his brother you guessed that Papyrus had helped him with that.

“Hey Sans! Welcome back from hood town. How was your stay there?” You teased him.

He went back to being blue in the face. And he seemed to prefer not to say anything in reply to your comment.

“Is there any way we could go get those documents?” You ask Alphys. “If we could find a way to finally know what is wrong with my soul…”

“W-well…”

“nothing is wrong with your soul.” Sans assured you with a serious and confident expression that you blushed at it.

“Are you sure?” You asked.

“yep.”

“Still… I’d be more at ease knowing why I’m so different.”

“W-what do you say, your majesty?” Alphys asked to Asgore.

“I suppose I could allow a trip to recover those documents. I, too, am concerned with your well being. Especially considering what happened in these last few hours.”

“Sorry for worrying you.” You apologized.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, young one. You did not ask for what happened to you.” Asgore waved away your apology.

“I know.” And this time you did know. Even if you went back to not knowing, you were sure these guys would get you out of that mentality time and time again.

“Sans, for the sake of saving time with a long trip, do you think you could teleport there and get them?” Asgore asked.

“sure thing, asgore. just let me rest a bit and eat.”

“Can I go too?” You asked. “I heard so much about the underground, especially from Frisk. They always tell me how beautiful it was.”

“Well… I don’t see why not?” Asgore said a bit unsure.

“Yey!”

“Now you all should resume your dinner. Especially you, my friend.” Toriel said to Sans.

With that said, everyone sat down again and resumed eating with more innocuous topics of conversation. Frisk was planning a movie marathon weekend before Undyne, Alphys and MK moved away. They were afraid they wouldn’t have much time get together it afterwards until Christmas break. They were asking for animated movies anyone might know and feel interest in. The only one they had ever seen as an old VHS tape of Bambi, according to them.

You had plenty of old VHS tapes that came from your sister’s childhood and were later given to you. You also could get some movies from the internet to watch. Mulan might be a good pick. Unfortunately, your Bamby VHS tape had been long lost so you couldn’t give Frisk that one more chance to watch it. You just hoped they had watched it so many times that he got bored of it

After dinner Frisk was so tired from all of that day’s event that they were already half asleep where they stood. They did insist on having a sleep over in Papyrus’ room, which culminated with you, Sans and Toriel helping each other reading the book to the kids. 

You were currently reading the sixth book and you were describing the trip Dumbledore took Harry to the cave where a horcrux was. Just for the whole cliffhanger of it you agreed to stop just as Dumbledore falls down the tower after being attacked by professor Snape and Harry is in denial and still believes he might still be alive despite it.

They all complained at your chosen spot to stop at but you really thought they didn’t need the disappointment of Dumbledore actually being dead that day. It was already filled with so much negativity. It didn’t need any more.

After that, you and Undyne took the dogs for a night walk as you let Sans rest some more. It turned out that Undyne had a pretty good night vision, as you had discovered in the past months, so she was very helpful in keeping Nucha and Iris in check, since they had the tendency to run off into the distance. She was also far more capable of catching up to them than you were. 

You returned to see Sans bombarded by your cats, looking very cozy. He was still awake, though. If he hadn’t been you might have just let him rest. Instead, once he saw you were there, he plucked the cats off of him and stood up.

“so, are you ready now?” He asked.

“Yup.”

“let’s go then.” He stretched a hand towards you and you grabbed it.

Pppppppppppppppprrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!

“Seriously, Sans?” you asked with a raised brow.

“the old Whoopi cushion in the hand trick. it's always funny.”

“That’s a relative notion, not an absolute one.” You commented, keeping your face a mask of disdain. You waited until you saw some perspiration on his forehead before you added with a beaming smile. “Fortunately for you, my relative notion of it is quite favorable.”

“you got me there for a second.” He told you and, before you could reply he suddenly grasped you hand a bit harder and teleported you without you expecting it.

You froze in place as you transversed the void to the new place. You barely payed attention to your new surroundings as you steadied yourself.

“Now THAT is beyond rude.” You commented with a glare.

“heh.” He shrugged.

You finally looked around as you felt the heat. You were in a rocky reddish soil. And it seemed to dip down at the edges of each side of the path, but instead of getting darker it seemed there was light emitting from it. You peeked over the edge as heat blasted your face and simply stared for a bit, trying to process what you were seeing.

“Sans…”

“yea?”

“Is this… lava?”

“yep.”

“… I don’t even… Yeah, I’m not gonna comment on this.” You go back to where Sans had been watching you. … Fuck it! “Ok, why are we near a death pit? You guys are really lucky this thing never exploded in the years you have been living here!”

“some of us could detect and control to a point the lava flow. not all, mind you, but most. grillbz and others like him even helped dig channels to redirect it to some place safer. most of it was redirected to the core to keep it working via geothermic power. this is the lowest point in hotland and the lava is still several dozen feet below us. believe me, we made sure that everything was safe before building here.”

“… You guys are amazing.” Was your simple conclusion.

“not really…? we were just trying to survive. i suppose if humans had been the ones underground you would have developed coping mechanisms as well. From what i've seen you have made very progressive advancements in technology that you aren’t even in desperate need of, so i can imagine just how further ahead you would be if you actually needed it.”

“Well… it is true that in times of need technology and science can advance pretty fast…” You admitted. “Maybe it’s a people thing in general. Perhaps if humans had been the ones trapped underground they would have kept magic to some point. Magic could be construed as a necessary tool for survival, right?”

“true.”

You kept theorizing how much different things would be if humans had been the ones trapped underground instead of monsters as Sans kept leading you through the rocky path. You only noticed your surroundings again when you stopped in from of a building painted in white with the word ‘Lab’ written over the door. Sans didn’t hesitate in punching a code in and entering.

“alphys usually didn’t lock the lab’s doors. she was always rushing from place to place, trying out new stuff to experiment on to prove or debunk her theories. she only ever locked it in special circumstances, the last one being leaving the underground. the king doesn’t want anyone coming here, especially if they don’t have the best intentions. alphys rigged some traps for anyone trespassing. nothing deadly or harmful. it'll just trap them here long enough for one of us to check who was butting in where they aren’t supposed to.” He explained.

“That’s cool.”

He entered what you had assumed was a bathroom stall and then turned out it was an elevator. It led to an even lower part of the building that was pretty dark, even if the lights were on. That part of the building must have been built deep inside the rock, considering how chill it was in there. You crossed several hallways and even passed by a room full of beds. In the end, you wound up in the room with a very big TV and several VHS tapes on two cases, most of them anime. Sans pulled out some of the tapes from one of the bookcases and you watched in bafflement as he opened a secret latch hidden there, taking out several papers, most of them filled with somewhat familiar symbols, though you couldn’t remember where from.

He set aside the only legible ones, which might have been Alphys’, along with a few other’s that he must have known weren’t relevant to what you needed. With that done he shoved the papers in his pocket, holding out a hand to you.

“Are we going to teleport again?” You ask a bit unsure.

“oh, right. i forgot you felt weird about it.” He said as if he had forgotten. Somehow you knew he hadn’t, which made you wonder why he was lying right now. “by the way, you never told me about that whole thing in the void. y-you know… the realistic dream you had when…”

You sighed.

“You could have just asked, no need to set up a scene for the ‘oh, by the way’ shtick.” You commented.

“heh. you're too smart for me.” He said back at you.

“Am not. I’m just average intelligence.”

“not from where I’m standing.”

“If you say so…”

It was his turn to sigh.

“i just didn’t want you to remember the bad things again by saying we need to talk and make you all nervous. you already gave me a pretty big heart attack today as it is, and I don’t even have a heart.” He admitted with a somber tone.

“I suppose.” You acquiesced. “Well… The dream thing isn’t really traumatic as it is… odd and makes me feel somewhat uneasy. In it I was falling down in a dark place. I was glowing green in the darkness but my body shape was all wrong, like someone had taken one of those shooting range cut outs and made it have a full body and be 3D. It was the most generic human look I’ve ever seen. There was someone else falling with me. They were yellow instead of green but… they felt familiar somehow, even if they didn’t have any discernable features. Then there was a crack in the darkness and an indigo colored person, as generic looking as the both of us, managed to grab my hand. It was Rajani. I stopped falling but yellow kept going. Somehow not being able to help yellow has always haunted be in some way. It’s stupid. I don’t know why I feel this way. Even if it felt very realistic, it was still just a dream.”

“i'm not completely sure on that. you just accurately described both of your soul trait colors as being you and rajani, if we exclude the yellow colored person. the selflessness trait also seems to be very much tied with your ptsd symptoms, especially with what your soul trait claimed, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that your original trait had always been kindness and you are just now finally getting it back. it’s starting to feel like selflessness is not a trait at all but a condition. anyway, these papers just might confirm or debunk my theory so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

“I thought you said there was nothing wrong with my soul?” You said but, the way you voiced it, it almost sounded like a question.

“there isn’t. there is only one soul thing that classifies as ‘wrong’ in my books. it’s the only one i’ve actually seen happen with my own eyes. and that is soul corruption.”

“What is that?” You asked, feeling a bit confused at the new terminology.

“well, from what I gleaned from alphys’ explanation, fading is when a person starts losing their main soul trait. corruption is different. you still keep your main trait but instead of acting on it, you twist it. it’s kind of like you think you are being kind, if we use your trait as an example, but instead you are just using kindness as an excuse to do something bad like… imagine you do something nice for someone, but you didn’t really do it to be kind. Instead you did it to get them to owe you a favor. And if they refuse at first, you’ll blackmail them emotionally by reminding them how ‘kind’ you were to them in the past. you know, that sort of thing.” Sans explained. “how a person acts when corrupt depends a lot on their soul trait.”

“Oh! That’s interesting. So… what traits have you seen get corrupt?” You asked.

“determination.”

“Then… how are you so sure of how other traits like kindness will react when corrupt?” 

“soul corruption was one of the first things that monsters found out when we began investigating souls. let’s just say it was pretty obvious what we were looking at. even with just my aura vision i could see who had a corrupt soul. the auras are always black with the smallest hint of color. there are several written accounts of how those humans reacted compared to non-corrupt ones from back before the war, which is why i know.”

“That’s very interesting.”

“anything new is interesting to you.” He commented with a chuckle.

“HEY!” You shouted out pretending to be insulted and then cleared the expression into one of harmless fun. “That’s completely true.”

You suddenly noticed that, while the two of you had been talking, Sans had walked you to the elevator without you even noticing. Well, at least he refrained from teleporting you. It was sweet that he actually made sure to not make you feel uncomfortable. 

Once you reached the upper level Sans began reading the papers he had with him and you peeked over his shoulder. Yep, it was all just a bunch of symbols to you. It looked somewhat familiar to you, though you weren’t sure why.

“What are those?” You asked.

“these seem to be about corrupted souls.” Sans replied.

He translated some passages about corrupted souls, including what they look like and how it affects each trait. According to the papers, both souls had an outer shell to protect their core, just as Alphys had explained previously, and were made of magic. It detailed that in monsters the outer shell was white because of their magic and feelings of love and compassion, whereas human souls had a mix of their trait with vestigial magic. In mages, the outer shell was far opaquer than a regular human because of all the magic permeating it. 

When it came to corrupted souls, in a human the core would be the only thing that still had the color of their trait, whereas the outer shell would be black in coloring, once again being opaquer when it came to mages. Surprisingly, monster souls could get corrupted. However, instead of black, the outer shell would turn reddish. That reddish color was called a ‘bleeding’. Basically, because of their outer base of love, compassion, and mercy, going against any of those concepts was incredibly damaging for the soul itself. In order to sustain that outer shell, the soul itself would produce something akin to determination to hold itself together. 

Other papers later mentioned that the red substance turned out to be different from determination in several ways but still acted somewhat similarly in others. It was still toxic to the monster but not as fast acting as human determination, whatever that meant. When you asked Sans about human determination being lethal to monsters he deflected the conversation masterfully.

He eventually found the file you had been looking for.

It started by detailing what ‘Fading’ was in general terms, specifying that, aside from when they were falling down, monsters were incapable of fading. That was because a soul faded when a person started to waver away from their original trait. In humans, when their souls started to step away from their original trait it took some time for them to decide on a new one to live their life by. Monsters, however, were much more connected, and in tune with, to their souls. That meant that when a monster soul decided that their core trait no longer fitted them, they were far quicker to assimilate a new one, avoiding the whole fading process altogether. 

In fact, as the document theorized, considering that the only moment the monster soul fades is when they are falling down, that fading might in fact be dangerous for a monster, potentially leading to their premature death if one were far less decisive than their peers.

It detailed how fading in humans affected each soul trait. In Determined souls it would make it easier for them to give up their goals. Brave souls would fall victim to their fears far more easily. Just souls would find it difficult to remain impartial. Kind souls would become harsher, being even linked to the words tsundere for some reason. 

In fact, the note about tsundere characters seemed to have been added later, probably by Alphys, considering it was the only bit you could actually read.

It proceeded by stating that Patient souls would become either impatient or lazy. Integral souls would find it easier to tell lies as well as being harsher towards having their sense of honor and ideal of justice being crossed. Finally, Perseverant souls wouldn’t be able to cope with harsh realities, going right down mental under the pressure.

There were some notes on whether there was the existence of a fully faded soul or not and if it was even possible and, if so, how would that affect the carrier. There were several degrees of fading, apparently, but the highest percentage recorded had been 78%. They theorized that a fully faded soul would most likely be fully gray and the person would probably be catatonic.

…

That was food for thought.

Sans seemed to get concerned with your state of internalizing your thoughts on the subject so you tried to pretend that you were fine. 

Truth be told, though, you were a bit bothered by the fact that, according to those papers, you probably had a fully faded soul -or at least used to have-, and that you should have been catatonic. It also bothered you because you weren’t sure what having Selflessness as a trait meant.

“hei, wanna see something cool?” Sans interrupted your thoughts.

“Huh? Oh! Sure!”

He took you hand and teleported you both, once again surprising you.

The next place you stopped at… was filled with snow. You shivered a bit at the cold. Looking up you could still see rock way up, meaning you were still underground. You almost missed Sans’ word play with your surprise.

“Sans… why is there snow in the underground?” You ask, deciding not to acknowledge the pun after all.

“mmmmmmagic.” Was his only reply.

You gave him a deadpanned expression at that.

“ok, ok. some of the residents used to live in snowy landscapes before joining the war and having to escape to the underground. at some point, the younger generations didn’t even know what snow was, so the elders created snow for them.”

“That’s sweet of them.”

“it was.” Sans confirmed. “after reading about snow, paps wanted to come and see it. He loved it so much that we ended up moving here.”

“Wait, you lived here?” You asked.

“sure did. right over there.” He pointed to a house that was covered in Christmas lights, even though they weren’t turned on.

“It’s cute.” You commented.

“paps decorated it.”

“Good taste.”

“ain’t my brother the coolest?”

“I hope you aren’t saying that just for the sake of the pun, Sans.” You said giggling.

“what.”

“Well, you did say you were taking me to a cool place.”

“heh.”

“But as I was saying, I hope you aren’t just saying that for the pun, ‘cause your brother is positively the most awesome of dudes!”

“no, I hadn’t meant to tell a pun just then.” He assured you, chuckling.

“I guess that it’s just a fortunate coincidence that Paps’ personality fitted with your old home, seeing as both are cool AF.”

“true.”

Sans showed you the quaint little town of Snowdin, including Grillby’s old establishment, which you loved most of all of it.

The building had the same style that Grillby re-created in Auburn, but looked much older and broken. It made sense since Alphys did tell you that monsters used trash that fell from above. 

You laughed when Sans whipped out a pair of fake glasses and made a Grillby impression, standing behind the bar.

Once you left the bar you scooped some snow up and tossed it at Sans in the most derpy snow ball in the history of ever. You had sort of expected for him to laze out on you and simply teleport away but instead Sans actually played with you. 

Whenever you tried to toss a snowball at him he would dodge. There really was no way to catch him by surprise so you rushed to the woods, hoping for some hiding places to help you outsmart him. You managed to hit him a few times. However, with him actually not being lazy about it for once, you had your ass handed to you in less time than you could say ‘do you wanna build a snowman’. 

Sure, you had hidden from him a few times but, by the end there was very little of you that wasn’t covered in melting snow. Getting tired of being hit so often you waited for his next distraction and jumped on him with two snow balls in hand, ‘smush’ing them on his cheekbones. You struggled together to see who ended up on top, rolling around in the ground like a pair of bear cubs playing.

It ended up with you both side by side facing each other and panting on the snow, covered in melting ice, laughing like madmen.

“Thank you, Sans.” You said after you regained your breath from all of the laughing.

“what for?”

“For cheering me up, you doofus.”

“heh. it was no trouble.”

“Still. Thank you.” You said and kissed his forehead in appreciation for his efforts.

He flustered and seemed unable to think up of something to say. It was adorable. But you decided to save him the trouble and stood up.

“Welp. It’s getting late. We should be going home.” You said, holding out your hand to help him up.

He took it, cheeks still blue, and you pulled on him.

“actually…” he started.

“Yes?”

He hesitated a bit and then finally said.

“i would like to take you to one more place.”

Who were you to say no to that adorable face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wanted this chapter title to have a mix of green related stuff (because of Miranda's soul) and a snow related flower (because of the visit to snow and Miranda's capability of enduring the harshest conditions) hence Forest (invoking the color green) and Snowdrops (white flower that blooms in winter and means Purity -because all white flower always mean purity, so, not really the meaning I was going for-, Hope -if we interpret HP as hope Miranda has none, but Raj does; also Mir brings hope to others like Sans and Flowey-, Rebirth -there are many reasons why this meaning is meaningful but, of the one ones that aren't spoiler-ish we could say that she had several rebirths already, namely when she tried to commit suicide after Daniel and Sophie broke her and Raj forced her to live on; when her family died and she had to endure a harsh life on the streets; and finally regaining a new life (and her own soul trait) with the monsters-, and Consolation or Sympathy -need I say more?-.  
> check more about this flower here: http://www.flowermeaning.com/snowdrop-flower-meaning/


	46. Chapter 45: Still Waters Run Deep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The official end of the unofficial Act 1: Ashes designation i gave it in my mind.  
> Includes 'date'(?) to waterfall and a trip to the hospital. Also tittle and lyrics drop ;P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We reach the end of act 1. I hadn't intended on purposefully splitting the story by acts, let alone give them names, but at some point I started to see that I had inadvertently split the story into three parts, the first one ending after Miranda's big reveal. I ended up adding the healing and meeting the sister as being part of this 'act' too to round it out much more nicely. This act, the way I see it, was all about the past and how that affected Mir's interactions with the monsters. Because of that I names it Ashes. 
> 
> Her life crumbles into ashes and she is just beginning to rebuild on it and rise again like a Phoenix (if you remember, last chapter I did mention that that symbology of the Snowdrop had rebirth on it, which applied to Miranda). Besides the Phoenix's and ash's mutual association to fire having played a part on naming this act, I also named it after a very famous saying: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. This saying is mostly used on funerals as a way to tell that once our soul returns to god, the body that had been made for you by him will return to it's elemental origins. Not only is the saying used on a death related context, it also refers to a cycle, much like the phoenix's like is based around a cycle as well. Also, although the bibble refers to dust as being what man is composed of, in this fanfic dust is actually monster related whereas ash will be human related (via cremation) as both being symbols of death. This act has been all about the 'ashes' on Miranda's life, how that affected her, and how her new family is helping her through this.
> 
> As for the other two acts? I haven't named them both just yet. i'm still figuring out the third act's name since I haven't something that is somewhat related to the existent symbology in act naming but the second act is named Flames in keeping with the phoenix thematic. It'll be not only about Mir 're-birthing' from her 'ashes' and well put together person, but also about her new 'flame' ;P (meaning romance with Sans). It will focus more on her budding feelings for him but there will still be character development for other characters as well, I hope. XP  
> either way, enjoy the end of Not Alone: Act 1 - Ashes.

Surprisingly, Sans didn’t teleport you to the new location once again. You were thankful for it but you weren’t sure what to make of it. Weren’t you going to take too long by doing it this way? It almost seemed like he didn’t want to go home just yet.

Was he still worried about your state of mind?

Somehow it didn’t feel like it was that.

You reached the end of Snowdin where the snow transitioned into stone. At first all you saw was dark and damp stone and then… then you started to see stones that glowed light blue. Stones that you recalled from Undyne’s proposal. 

At first it was just one or two at a time but gradually they grew in number until the whole ceiling was littered with them. It reminded you of those pictures you saw on the internet of the milky way seen from earth without any light pollution. It was breathtaking. You looked down at Sans and he smiled back at you. Not that he wasn’t already smiling before, but this time his smile was a bit different.

You looked back at the ceiling, still open-mouthed in amazement.

And then you saw glowing water and it just blew your mind into the stratosphere. Or into the stalactites, as was the case.

You drew closer to the water and noticed that, like you predicted, it was populated with tiny bio-luminescent algae that floated about in the mostly still water, carried by a lazy current underneath the surface.

Looking further ahead you could see that the glowing water extended for a fairly big amount of space, making it a lake, and had several stone pathways sculpted on it for people to cross it. Above you, more glowing stones formed galaxies over galaxies, completely covering the cavernous ceiling.

There was so much to see and so much to know that, even if you had been able to form any words you wouldn’t have been able to string a somewhat coherent sentence. You also saw glowing cyan flowers that repeated all that they heard, mushrooms that lit up if you tapped them and even flowers that bloomed when they were strung four in a row inside the water.

In the end Sans took you to a place that could only be reached by stringing the four flowers and by Sans’ usual means of transportation, the ‘shortcut’. That place was small and only had a bench and a small echo flower. It was surrounded by walls on all sides that kept it hidden from anyone that walked by on the other side and had no knowledge of that place, but for the tiny gap through which you had entered. The bench was somewhat facing that gap, which opened up to a big lake and a massive dome sculpted into the cave’s ceiling that had yet even more glowing crystals. This time the waters weren’t filled with bioluminescent life and were stilled into a perfect water mirror of the walls above.

You wondered why you hadn’t noticed it before Sans had sit you on the bench. You had come through that gap, after all. But then again there had been some rocks on the lake that covered part of the view. It was the view from that gap alone that held no obstructions what so ever and it was a magical experience for you.

Once again words failed you.

“this was my favorite place to stay at whenever i needed to think… or even not think at all. it always helped me relax to just sit here and watch the view.” Sans said, interrupting your open mouthed gaping and making you finally look at him.

“I… I can see why. I literally can’t think of any words to describe this. And believe me, I tried. It’s just so…” You helplessly gestured with both hand while trying to convey what was on your mind.

“i get’cha. i still have no words to describe it either and I’ve come here most of my life.” He reassured you. “i found this place when i was 7. i had just found out i could teleport and was practicing and somehow ended up right here. there wasn’t a bench back then. i… i added it later.” He seemed embarrassed by his own admission of having the initiative of doing some physical labor.

“It’s so beaultiful…” You finally said, though it still felt a bit lacking in conveying the feel of the place. “Thank you for bringing me here. Waterfall is a truly wondrous place. And this spot right here? It’s so stunning that I could kiss you for showing me this!”

“promise?” Sans said so soflty and fast that you weren’t completely sure of what he had said.

“Huh?! Sorry, I’m not sure if I caught that. Can you repeat?” You asked.

Had he actually asked you to promise to kiss him? But… didn’t he like Toriel? Nah, you must have misheard. You never really had the best ‘translating sound into meaning’ brain function and misheard a lot of things constantly when people spoke too softy or too fast. Considering that Sans had done both at the same time you wouldn’t be at all surprised you might have heard it wrong.

“i said ‘will you miss it?’.” Sans corrected.

You tried voicing the words in your mind. They didn’t really seem to fit but you imagined that if one were to say them pretty fast you might have understood ‘promise?’ instead. But why was he asking if you would miss it? Miss what? The view?

“I… guess?” You tentatively replied. “To be honest I’m not much in a rush to go back home. I do like the view a lot and I’ll probably miss it, yes.”

“i could always bring you back if you ask, you know?” Sans added.

“You could? I thought Asgore didn’t really like to have humans down here.”

“he doesn’t but I’m sure he’d let me bring you. especially if it was to watch the views. he’s a softy that way. and i’m pretty sure he is this close to adopting you into the family. or at least tori is.”

You blushed a bit at how casually Sans had worded the adoption bit. You no longer felt like you weren’t deserving of some luck for once but you were still mystified at how casually everyone seemed to want you to stick around. You didn’t really understand why they did it, but the mere fact that they did…? It made you feel warm inside your chest where your soul probably was at.

Instead of replying you leaned onto Sans until you were using his shoulder as a cushion. He seemed to startle at that but then looped an arm around your shoulders. You two stayed like that for a while, watching the glittering stones.

And then a phone rang, interrupting your daze.

It was, obviously, Sans’ phone. You hadn’t exactly been keen on bringing your phone with you, after all. And, also obviously, it had been Toriel wondering about your whereabouts and why you were taking so long. 

Welp! It was good while it lasted. You stood up from the bench after Sans informed you it was time to bring you back.

“I had a really great time, Sans. Even with my flashback and all that, I think this is the best day I had in years. Thank you.” You bent down and kissed his cheek in gratitude.

Sans seemed to freeze for a bit, blue faced, and you remembered that kissing one’s cheek might not be seen as a gesture of gratitude in America. Was it? You really weren’t so sure about that. It’s not like you went out of your way to socialize with anyone. Heck, you mostly did the exact opposite.

You tactically decided to act like it was no big deal so as to reassure him that he didn’t need to think too deeply into it.

“Let’s go?” You ask as casually as possible even if inside you were feeling down right embarrassed by your cultural mishap.

Sans shrugged off his blush and took your hand, teleporting you to the entrance hall of your home. Toriel scolded you a bit for worrying her and Sans handed all of the research he gathered to Asgore. It seemed they would be up for some time to read but insisted you go to bed since you would be visiting your sister the next day.

You weren’t too pleased about that. Last thing you wanted was to have another nightmare. But what would you do? Insist that someone slept with you like some glorified teddy bear? Yeah… nope, you had already acted too much like a child that day already. It was time to be a big girl again.

You weren’t surprised when your whole pack demanded to sleeping with you. They knew you needed physical reassurance after a flashback. You climbed up into the sheets and nestled between the furry bodies. You closed your eyes and waited to fall asleep. You doubted you would be getting any visit from the sandman any time soon. You had slept for quite some time after the attack and, after the wonderful evening you had you felt energized, if anything.

You heard someone opening your door to check on you and kept pretending to be asleep. They brushed your hair aside from your face and caressed your head for a bit. You were feeling curious about the person in front of you but the petting felt so good that you didn’t want it to stop by them realizing you were awake.

And then they left and you finally fell asleep.

You didn’t sleep easy that night, still somewhat plagued by nightmares. That much was a fact. But it was also fact that you could have slept much worse. Thousand times much worse. As things were, your nightmare level was pretty tame in comparison. Tame enough that you woke up feeling… normal.

You got dressed and risked a glance at your alarm clock. You woke up late but didn’t pay it much mind. If Sans was indeed going to teleport you there, like he had said, then you still had some time.

After you finished getting ready for the day you went down to the kitchen to hunt for some cereal, since everyone had probably already eaten their breakfast.

You were proved wrong, though.

Once you entered the kitchen you noticed that everyone was there and half of them were still eating while the others merely sat there making small talk. As soon as they noticed you they greeted you cheerily. Papyrus even hugged you.

He was still calling you Miranda…

You really hated that you had worried the adorable giant this much. He would scold you if you apologized for it, though, so you didn’t. Instead you greeted him back as happily as you could, wanting him to know you were ok. He seemed satisfied by that, but remained a bit concerned.

Toriel whipped out a plate full of raspberry pie and a whole milk chocolate bar with hazelnut in it. Two favorites of yours and Rajani’s. 

Speaking of Rajani…

You tried to reach her in your mind. It took some time but eventually you got a half-dazed response from her. It was pretty obvious that she was still dead tired but she did put the effort into coming out to share the meal with you. You sort of expected that. Rajani could never resist milk chocolate or hazelnuts, only to be surpassed by a box full of Guylian parlinés.

You shared your meal in silence as you both heard the small talk happening around you. You were disappointed when you finished the meal, wanting to eat more. Both you and Rajani were notable for your sweet teeth. One could even say you had both a mouth full of them instead of just one each. Alas, you couldn’t make a mere slice of pie and a chocolate bar last forever, now could you? You stood up and hugged Toriel as thanks for the meal, not feeling much verbal this early on that particular day. She merely hugged you back, not even questioning your actions.

“So… are you ready, punk?” Undyne asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” You replied.

You indicated to Sans where the hospital your sister was being kept in was on google maps and he studied the layout of the area with the street view. He nodded once he was done and you latched onto his arm, ready for the ‘shortcut’. He seemed to startle at that but recovered and held his other harm out to Undyne.

She took it and, with no warning on Sans’ part, you were off. You had already expected the lack of warning and had already steeled yourself to the trip but Undyne clearly had never taken his shortcuts nor had she got herself ready for them, if all the cussing was to be proof of anything.

Sans didn’t stay long, teleporting out and returning with Frisk and Toriel a few moments later. Eventually everyone was there with you and you took the lead into the hospital’s lobby. Once inside, you walked to the front desk, paying little mind to your companions.

“I’m here to see Carina Castro. Is she still in the same room as before?”

“Are you miss Castro’s family?”

“I’m her sister.” You pulled out your ID. As she checked your documents you took the chance to ask. “How many people are allowed to visit her at a time?”

“We don’t really have a limit for patients in coma like your sister. Especially after this long. Most people gradually stop visiting aside from family.” She informed you, returning your ID and clicking on a few more keys on her computer. “Her doctor will join you soon to talk about her status.”

“Understood. Thank you.”

The lady nodded absentmindedly, focusing on the monsters behind you with wide eyes, having only just noticed them. Her gaping was understandable. Most monsters had decided to stick around in Auburn while legislation regarding monsterkind was still being set. 

Technically they could travel all over that state without any extra care but no one was looking forward to dealing with discrimination this soon. Even if law protected monsters now, that didn’t keep people from being stupid. Auburn was used to their presence, but all the other cities weren’t. There were the few brave ones that chanced the outside world and moved to neighboring cities but none had reached the one where your sister was staying at.

So, you ignored the flabbergasted woman without thinking further on the issue whereas your companions disregarded her with resignation at the over the top reaction.

“She’s on the third floor.” You informed your friends. “She doesn’t really get many visitors. Just me and maybe some random person that won’t be released any time soon and is bored out of their mind and decides to visit the whole hospital.

Your companions looked at you oddly.

“What? That’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do!” You complained.

“You seem to speak from experience, young one.” Asgore prodded.

“Well… I was thirteen and was trying to fix my legs. It failed but that’s not what matters. I was required to stay a week in the hospital while recovering from surgery. In the afternoon, they would put me in a wheel chair and I would wheel myself all over the hospital. I visited every ward I could and chatted with other patients. It was mostly the elderly people, though. Most of them didn’t really get visitors anymore so having a young face talking to them was a delight.”

“That was very kind of you, my child.” Toriel commented.

“I guess…?” You shrugged, blushing a bit. “I was mostly just bored and if it would do good to someone else then why not?”

You reached the elevator and rushed inside, clicking on the third-floor button and then hiding in the back of the elevator, hoping to get out from under the spotlight. It didn’t work, but fortunately the subject was changed to your sister while she still had been awake. You didn’t hesitate on telling them more about her, even stuff you usually wouldn’t tell anyone. Stuff about what one of her ex-boyfriends had done to her.

You couldn’t quite remember how the subject of her previous boyfriends had been broached but you suspected it had been the shipping duo once more. Perhaps even Frisk? It had been a question about if she had a significant one who thought she was dead after she disappeared from Portugal so suddenly. You had told them that she wasn’t looking for a man and had been considering using a sperm back before her time was up.

You just had to slip up and say that last bit. She wouldn’t have liked that.

Of course Toriel had been the one asking what you had meant since ‘surely, even with a gap of a whole decade between you two, your sister is still young enough to be a mother if she wakes up’. Those had been her words.

You sighed.

“Her first serious relationship wasn’t that good.” You explained. “The guy was downright obsessed with her but… for all his obsession… he sure liked to dip his paint brush in different cans of paint. He transmitted her a virus that can cause cancer in the cervix. Yeah, he literally gave her cancer. Because of his obsessive behavior my sister didn’t think he had cheated on her but, when she started dating someone else, a few years after breaking up with the douche, she decided to check her health down there before getting… touchy feely, if you know what I mean. Just a routine thing, nothing much. … They found out that something was starting to brew there and had to perform surgery before it became malignant. Her cervix is weakened and they estimated that she would probably be unable to carry a full-term pregnancy after she was 35. She still had some time back then, before the bomb but was already looking into it, but… it obviously didn’t pan out. She’s 36 now. Even if she wakes up her window of opportunity has already closed.”

“That’s so sad…” Toriel commented. “But couldn’t she adopt?”

“She could but… the experience of growing a life inside her? How personal and… I don’t know! Even if she would still treat an adopted child the same as a birthed one she wouldn’t get the whole experience of motherhood.” You tried to explain. 

“I understand.” Toriel said. Perhaps you weren’t that bad at explaining things as you had thought.

“W-what about you?” Alphys asked. “Y-you said t-that your… erm… cycle isn’t t-that regular…”

“I’m fine. I may be irregular but it’s more of a hormonal thing than anything else. I guess my hormones simply can’t settle. So yeah… If I crack my head hard enough to think a one-night stand might be a good idea I could still get pregnant.” You said shivering a bit at the prospect of it.

“I guess getting knocked up by a complete stranger would really suck...” Undyne commented, misinterpreting your shiver. “But why would you only get some in a one-night stand? You are perfectly capable of finding a willing partner for long term.”

You didn’t need to look at her to guess that she was eying one of the skeleton brothers, if not both of them.

“You mean a sex friend?” You ask her, being purposefully oblivious to her hinting at starting a serious relationship. If all of them had been taking a sip from a drink they would have taken a spit-take.

 _ **Man, she sure is pushy! Can’t a girl be silently weary without having to deal with this crap?**_ Rajani blurted out from her very foggy and bleary-eyed side of your mind.

_Tell me about it…_

“What’s a one-night stand? What’s a sex friend?” MK asked. 

Toriel had been trying to cover innocent ears but it was already too late and her efforts proved ineffective. There were only so much ears she could cover wit her two hands, as massive as they were. The damage was done.

_What do I do now?_

_**Hey, you put yourself in this one and I have a massive migraine because I’m forcing myself to be awake when I should still be resting. You deal with it.** _

_Urgh! Dammit._

You tactfully tried to explain both terms to the kids so as to say there was no shame in doing either action, so one shouldn’t harass or shame someone who did those things, yet also without making it seem like it was something that they should definitely do when they grow older.

Before any further questions could be asked or answered you finally reached your sister’s room. You went in first and weren’t surprised when the others gasped as they entered after you.

There she was.

There was a bag with all the nutrients the human body needed dripping down into her vein from a plastic tube. She didn’t have any oxygen gear. For some reason, she could technically live without all of the machinery. Her heart didn’t stop and her breathing kept even, if somewhat slow. But just in case a lot of machinery was kept around her to monitor both functions closely. To be honest, the only things she truly seemed to need was the nutrients and a nurse making sure to exercise her muscles by moving her body like a marionette without strings.

Even scans to her brain showed that there was definitely evidence consistent with the existence of thoughts in there.

So why she wouldn’t wake up was a mystery…

Her hair was too long again. You would need to request someone to cut it before you left.

“Olá, mana. Já lá vai algum tempo.” You greet. It was Portuguese for: Hi, sis. Long time no see. 

She, obviously, doesn’t reply. You continue in Portuguese, much to your friends’ befuddlement.

“Yeah… I’ve been away for some time now. Last time I visited was on… my birthday? I think it was. Sorry I didn’t make it for yours, though. Was a bit busy with work at the time. Not just work, though. There were other things that came up too. It has been some hectic last few months but don’t worry. I’ll catch you up soon enough.” You then remembered the people behind you still watching the scene and switched to English. “Oh, by the way! This time I didn’t come alone. I made friends and… well it’s a long story but I had another flashback yesterday and they are a bit worried about me. But they also wanted to see you too so they came with me.” You explained and then turned towards them. “Come on over. Introduce yourselves!”

You took a step back as you let your new family gather around the bed as they told your sister their names and a brief summary of each. Then they each started explaining how you met, starting by Papyrus who told your sister of him rescuing you from a couple of thugs with a few agreeing hums from Sans. 

Each of them talked about their perception of you and the scaly duo even told her of shipping you and several other people. Some of those ships you didn’t even know about beforehand. Mettaton? Really? And you only ever heard of the Nice Cream Guy because of the NiceCream that Undyne had given you! Who even was Burgerpants and what did he have to do with the ‘After Ever After’ song!? And what’s with all those ‘dog’ names? There was even someone named Catty? What the hell!? Of course Sans and Papyrus where on the list but you were a bit surprised that Grillby was there too.

You winced when Toriel mentioned you playing ‘Hallelujah’ on Undyne’s piano, which prompted the fish woman to want to see what you were capable of. Asgore and Toriel translated Frisk’s words for your sister’s sake when they talked about how you taught them how to draw and sometimes helped with homework.

The only ones not actively participating seemed to be Sans and Flowey, with Sans barely doing anything other than humming along with the others’ stories and Flowey doing nothing but scowling. You supposed they wouldn’t really open up to an unconscious stranger, let alone in front of everyone else. That and you thought there was something else bearing down of Sans’ shoulders as he watched your slumbering sister. 

Had he seen something bad on her aura? Was she faded too?

You would be staying the whole day until visiting hours were over, like you usually did, so you told the others, as soon as they were done introducing themselves, that they didn’t need to stay with you the whole time. At first, they ignored your allowance, probably out of sheer politeness but when lunch time bore in they took shifts in going out for lunch. By the end of it no one seemed to notice you hadn’t gone out of the room to eat.

At some point Toriel decided that the kids needed some time to play and Sans teleported her and the kids back home but it seemed everyone was quite content in taking a day off to watch your sister sleep.

“D-do…” Alphys started as soon as Sans returned from taking Flowey and MK, freeing the space of children. “Do you think t-that your sister’s c-coma… m-might be connected with exposure to antim-matter?”

You looked at her unsure of how you should act next. Part of you was still concerned that she might turn you and your sister unto lab rats but you felt like you knew better now than to just assume something bad. You still couldn’t help but fear that outcome all the same. Too many conditioned thoughts from too much time spent being betrayed. You tried not to blame yourself too harshly for still being unable to trust them fully, lest Rajani find a way to whack your head somehow. She definitely hated whenever you blamed yourself for anything.

“I have thought about that several times. By all accounts she should be able to wake up. There’s no head trauma and her CAT scans show regular brain activity. She can also breathe without any aid and her heart rate is doing fine, if a bit slow… But I couldn’t exactly tell the doctors of the… incident, you know? Not if they are still looking for me…”

“Would you m-mind if I check on your s-sister’s soul?” She asked, adding quickly. “J-just the stats!”

“Erm… I guess so? I mean… I’m not sure my sis would be up to it but… There’s no real harm in just checking her stats and soul script. If it would help…”

Alphys nodded and made a motion towards Carina’s chest. Her stats rose up and floated in front of her.

.

> “Carina”
> 
> LV 1
> 
> HP ---/637
> 
> AT ?? (0) EXP: 0
> 
> DF ?? (0)
> 
> * You’re trying to reach out of the darkness.
> 
> * But…
> 
> * You can’t.  
>    
> 

.  
.

To say you were shaken by the script was putting it lightly. The other stats were already confusing enough, but with that last tidbit… After all this time you were feeling more and more like you had to force yourself to think that your sister might still be there but, deep down, you believed she was probably gone. 

And yet…

There it was. Proof that she was trying so hard to come out of her coma. It wasn’t just you putting so much effort in this seemingly dead-end relationship. She was trying too!

…

It shamed you that you had doubted her so easily. That even your best efforts were somewhat lacking conviction.

You wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

“S-sis!?” You called out. “Are you there?”

.

>   
> 
> 
> * You try harder to reach out of the darkness.
> 
> * You fail.  
>    
> 

.  
.

“So, you can hear me! I… I never actually thought you could…” You admitted. “It was nice to think that there might be an off chance that you could but… I never actually believed it fully. I’m sorry, sis.”

.

>   
>    
> * You try even harder to reach out of the darkness.
> 
> * Your failure frustrates you.  
>    
> 

.  
.

“No, no! It’s ok! Just knowing you are still there is enough for me! Of course, I would like it better if you could actually be here with me but… this is enough.” You try to comfort her. “I promise not to give up on you! I… We’ll find a way to get you out!”

.

>   
>    
> * You are a bit confused on how you managed to communicate with your sister.
> 
> * You decide it doesn’t matter so long as she got the message.  
>    
> 

.  
.

“I got it, sis! Loud and clear! Loud and… clear…” Your eyes mist over as your emotions overwhelm you.

You helplessly try to keep your meltdown under control to no avail. As you begin to sob you feel someone pick you up and hug you. By the strength of the hug and the shape of the arms you suspect Papyrus is the one who did it.

You are still aware that Alphys is now the one talking to your sister, though you aren’t quite sure what about since you are too busy grossly covering the front side of Papyrus’ armor with tears and snot.

You would later learn that Alphys was trying to determine how much your sister knew about what happened to her and how she was perceiving the world around her. She learned that your sister’s souls script wasn’t a good alternative when it came to describing things or conveying complicated information.

It did prove however, that your sister had been seriously affected by her coma. To what extent was yet to be seen but she had tried to describe a feeling of not being sure who she was anymore. Whether she overcame that feeling or was still in the midst of it was yet to be determined.

She seemed ok with allowing Alphys to scan her soul… except that… when Alphys tried to extract it, there was no soul to be seen, or so you had heard since everyone else had vacated the room for that. Sans didn’t really seem surprised. He revealed that he hadn’t been getting a clear reading on her aura, like it was being covered in static or something

By the time you were allowed to return inside the room visiting hours were almost over and all you had time to do was say good bye to your sister.

It was hard knowing your sister was right there and be unable to do anything about it. It was hard having to decide how to act next. It was hard.

Three years since the bomb. Three years slowly fading away in the streets of Auburn. Three years being lost and afraid, hopeless in a world so cold…

If you had found out three years ago, or even a few months back, when you still lived on the streets, it would have broken you. You were not equipped for this kind of emotional overload. You were not stable enough to shoulder this much responsibility over someone else’s life.

But now?

At last you had someone with you. At last you had someone who would carry you through it all. At last you had someone who wouldn’t leave you to rot. At last you had someone who would catch you whenever you felt like letting go.

Finally, you could say it. 

You’re not alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOT ALONE:  
> END OF ACT 1 - ASHES  
> BEGIN ACT 2 - FLAMES
> 
> Who was caressing Mir's head before she fell asleep? I was feeling divided between Toriel and Sans. On one hand giving Tori a bit more of relevance in this context made sense, on the other THE SHIPPENING!!!! So I decided to leave it open to interpretation and you guys can figure out which one you prefer.


	47. Chapter 46: Icy What You Did There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne forces the issue of attraction with Miranda.  
> ...  
> ...the results aren't what Miranda expected or wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Begining of Act 2: Flames  
>  And what a beginning!

Part of you wanted to return to your sister the very next day.

Now that you knew she was there, you wanted to stay near her as much as you could. You wanted to keep talking to her and make sure she didn’t feel alone. You wanted to stay there regardless of everything. It was also the very same part of you that didn’t want to deal with the responsibilities of being a grown up, like having a job and so on. 

You couldn’t afford to listen to that small part of you.

So, you went to work the next day and took the quieter moments of your work to think about what you wanted to do now. 

Alphys had suggested trying to help your sister but made sure to stress out that it would probably involve a lot of stuff regarding the antimatter bomb and it would be very experimental, which was something she knew you disliked greatly.

You seriously didn’t like that idea but you knew you weren’t the only one who needed to make a choice here. By all accounts you still had the power to veto anything they might want to do.

Sure, you sister could now agree or disagree all she wanted -and she had agreed to it- but you were still the one who had to sign all the papers in her stead, especially if this was all to remain under wraps.

You had asked your sister to wait for you to make a decision and clear things up with the others.

Really, it boiled down to whether you should volunteer yourself as a guinea pig for any experimental treatment before it was applied to your sister or not. You really couldn’t let them just try anything they wanted on your poor sister when you were the one still awake and perfectly healthy. 

_**…and, also, the one with a multiple personality with a fuck ton of HP…**_ Rajani reminded you, feeling much more coherent now that she had gotten some rest, though not enough to operate her Rajbot.

You sighed.

_Should I just go along with it?_ You asked her reluctantly, knowing she was as much a part of this as you.

_**Not up to me, Mir. You have to make your own choices. But… I already know what you are going to choose, even if you don’t.** _

_You do?_

_**Yes. It’s pretty easy to figure out. I already know all your thought process so… yeah. I already know. I’m not too happy about it but agree that it’s the best choice we have.** _

_So… I should team up with Alphys and the other antimatter scientists?_

_**Like I said, it’s up to you. But I already knew that was going to be your choice from the start. The only reason you are even hesitating is because of your own fears about your ‘freakishness’. The moment our sister spoke to us via soul script your mind was made. You would do anything to help her out of her coma.** _

_…you’re right… Gosh, I’m so predictable._

_**That’s not necessarily a bad thing.** _

You were still pretty uneasy about your choice but you had to admit that Rajani was right about everything she said. You couldn’t just let your sister stay in a coma if you could help it. You would just have to suck it up.

You were still deep into your own thoughts when Greg told you that you could go home earlier. There wasn’t much work to do just before Christmas. It was mostly finishing up the details for the Christmas specials and continue producing the cartoon TV series. As you left you were so oblivious to your surroundings, due to how deep in your own thoughts, that you hadn’t even noticed the blue wall of muscle and scales blocking your path until you literally ran into her.

“HEY, PUNK!”

“Undyne!? What in the dickens are you doing here?”

“Came to getcha, of course. I’m gonna take you to the BEST PLACE EVER!!!”

“Uuuuuuuh… ok?”

“C’mon, punk!” She grabbed you and sat you on one of her shoulders, dashing away at a very unsafe speed. Unsafe for you, that is. You didn’t really have many places to hold onto as it was, one of them being her pony tail. She didn’t really seem bothered by it. She must have a Rapunzel-like strength on her roots, to be able to withstand you holding on for dear life.

When she finally did stop you looked like Megara after riding in Pegasus for the first time. Except that you weren’t as sassy or as skinny in the waist… or had that killer purple dress either. She dropped you in a heap next to her.

“Here we are.” She announced.

“Hello, Undyne! You caught me just in time. I was about to pack my shop and go home.” A voice you didn’t recognize said.

“Sup, Leveret! This won’t take too long. My friend here is in some serious need of a cheer up!” Undyne replied.

The name Leveret seemed somewhat familiar to you, but not by much. You look up to see an anthropomorphic rabbit with blue fur and the most pleasant expression you’d ever seen on anyone.

“Oh, I always have time for a customer! Hello! My name is Leveret, but everyone calls me the NiceCream Guy. Nice to meet you.”

“Hi. Name’s Miranda. Nice to meet you too. Sorry if I’m a bit dazed. I was just dragged here at supersonic speeds.” You said as you tried to right yourself on shaky legs. Then you remembered what he’d said. “Did you say NiceCream?”

“Ah! I see that you are already acquainted with my products! What did you think of it?” Leveret asked.

“That pharmaceutic companies specialized in anti-depressants and any variety of pills dedicated for people with low self-esteem have a run for their money with you around. You could patent this and get deals with psychologists to help treat some of their patients. In short, these are wickedly good! Best of all, it doesn’t taste like bitter medicine.”

“Wow, that’s the best comment I’ve received. Thank you!”

“It’s genuine so there’s no need to thank me for it.”

“So, what will you two have today?” He asked.

“I want the Lummen Shroom one!”

“Lummen Shroom? What is that?” You asked.

“It’s a type of mushroom we had in the underground.”

“Oh! Is it the one you tap to make it light up?” You asked, making sense of the word ‘lummen’.

“Yup. How do you know about that?” Undyne asked frowning a bit.

“Sans felt like I needed some more cheering up, the day before yesterday, so he took me to Waterfall after we gathered the documents we needed. It was beautiful there.” You tell her.

“Oh! I see how it is…” She said with a wide smirk. The sort of smirk that announced future minutes of relentless shipping.

_**Uh oh!** _

_Topic change!!!!_

“I’ve never seen a mushroom ice cream before. What does that taste like?”

“Lummen Shrooms are slightly sweet with a tart undertone to it. You should try it!” She said but her smirk stayed in place.

“Maybe someday. For now, I’m going for flavors that I already know.” You told her and then turned towards Leveret. “I’ll want the raspberry NiceCream, please.”  
“Here you go, ladies.” He said producing two wrapped popsicles from his cart. “Have a nice evening and come again!”  
“Thanks! Good evening to you too!”  
You unwrapped your popsicle and licked at it. Like you had expected, when you put it into your mouth you felt the popping and sizzling of magic in it as well as that same feeling of peace and happiness. Your magically induced inner voice immediately started complimenting you. If the orange flavored one had surprised you before, then you were currently having a gastronomic orgasm.

You ‘squeeee’ed cheerfully at the taste and did a little dance before going back for another lick. It surprised Undyne since you hadn’t reacted this way with the orange flavored NiceCream before. She frowned at you in confusion but then smiled at your passionate expression at the taste of your prefered fruit, realeasing a ‘HECK YEAH, IT’S ‘SQUEEEE’!’

You started walking towards the way you had come from, guessing that Undyne had parked the truck there. Or at least you were assuming she had parked her truck there. Knowing her, she might have ran all the way to your work place.

“Undyne.” You called out suddenly, interrupting her rant about how there should be a ramen flavored NiceCream, as well as other Japanese foods.

“Yeah, punk?”

“Why is Alphys even shipping me with Leveret?” You asked. “He seems nice and all, but… I had never actually met the guy before today.” you ask, feeling confused and curious about her choice.

“Yeah… Gotta say, that wasn’t one of her best potential ships. We were just tossing names in the air when she came up with that one. At least it makes more sense than shipping you with BP.”

“Erm… Who’s that? And why does me being shipped with Leveret makes more sense, anyway?”

“BP? He goes by Burgerpants, by the way. Even I’m not completely sure what is real name is. He’s one of Mettaton’s employees. He used to work at MTT’s brand of Glamburgers but Mettaton hasn’t gone around to recreate the brand up here just yet. For now, he has been limited to a few odd jobs. Sans told me they don’t take too kindly to having fur on their hamburgers in McDonald’s so he’s a bit limited on what he can do.” Undyne explained. “I figured that with your past of having worked at a fast food joint you might find common ground with him and he does need a bit of your spunk in his life instead of all of his resigned gloom and doom.”

“Huh.” You hummed understandingly. From a purely logical and very calculating sense you could understand where she was coming from.

“As for Leveret, Alphys figured that since you are both nice then you would be the duo of niceties and never actually fight one another.”

“I’m… not so sure about that. I’m not exactly pure in every sense.” You admitted.

“Oh, I know.”

“You do?”

“I was the one who actually read a bit of your sex books.”

“It’s actually called erotica and you must have just happened upon a steamy sex scene. It doesn’t mean that the whole book is just about sex. There is some plot there too, you know?”

“Alphys also told me about what you were trying to hide away in your purse, back at the storage unit.”

“Your fiancé is a blabber mouth. Should I start telling all about the noises and, best of all, sentences that I heard coming from your room in one of the nights I was having insomnia. I’m sure I know some people who might find it just juicy how much you like it when Alphys plays the lust-mad scientist with you all vulnerable and, I assume by the conversation you two were having, tied down.” You slyly remark watching the fish woman become more and more red.

“HOW DID YOU HEAR THAT!? WE WEREN’T EVEN THAT NOISY!”

“I lived on the streets. Had to learn to take notice of the smallest sounds for the sake of my safety. Having PTSD also helps in some ways, like when I’m feeling somewhat paranoid or something and my mind is hyper aware of everything. It’s especially prominent after I have a nightmare, as was the case. Besides, you think that is quiet? Honey, I lived in a two bedroom and had to share a room with my mom. To this day I can honestly say that I’ve never been even mildly loud. A few gasps here and there but otherwise?”

“I’m not sure that’s anything to brag about.” Undyne commented. “Doesn’t that just mean that you aren’t enjoying yourself to the fullest?” She commented as you stopped in front of your work building. She seemed somewhat distracted by looking around as if searching for something but you didn’t really pay it any mind.

“Well… dunno. I guess I either am incapable of it or have yet to meet someone who can absolutely make me scream my head off… Why are we even talking about this? Like this is a massive level of TMI.”

Undyne shrugged and stopped walking. She was now smirking for some reason. You turned to her, waiting for her actual reply.

“I mean… you already know about me and Alphys role-playing so I don’t really think what you said is too much information like you claim it is. Moving on to another topic. Why was your first reaction to me asking about a long-term partner was questioning if I was talking about a sex friend?” She asked, sounding a bit serious.

You sighed resignedly.

“If I answer honestly will you and Alphys just drop the shipening already?” You ask right back.

“Well… not completely but I guess we can reign ourselves in and stop shipping you with some of the potentials.”

“And no more crazy anime induced plans either!” You add.

“Urgh! FINE!”

“Well… I… I just can’t see myself being with anyone right now. I’m not emotionally ready for another relationship, what with my whole life having been flushed down the toilet like human waste? It would be unfair to anyone I could start dating. Like: Hey I like you! By the way, my sister’s in a coma, I’m a total freak with multiple personalities and PTSD, socially stunted and have a whole organization of bad guys searching for my whereabouts. Hope you didn’t mind any of those. So, where are we going out for dinner?” You intone, making your voice extra chipper in your make-believe dialogue from hell. “Nah. It would be unfair to anyone I would date. Besides, it’s not in me to date someone I don’t have some sort of emotional connection with. I would probably need to be friends with him, like the kind you trust with everything, before moving on to actual dating.”

“And you would be fine with being sex friends with someone instead?” Undyne asked doubtingly.

“… well… To be honest… not really. I mean, it’s not that I haven’t ever considered that before. When I realized I probably am incapable of having a healthy romantic relationship I did start to wonder if all I had to look forwards too was that. But even so I still need to have some established trust with a person before letting them into my pants.” You commented. “In short it’s almost every bit as unlikely for me to become someone’s sex friend as it is for me to actually date a guy.”

“But not impossible, right?” Undyne asks.  
“Well… no. It’s, technically speaking, not impossible.”

“Aha! Knew it!” Undyne shouted out. “You must have someone in your mind. Probably of a calcified complexion and, in your own words, with an adorable blue blush.”

“W-what!? How did we just from the overall probability of me dating in general to you claiming I’m crushing on Sans!?” You asked.

“I didn’t say Sans’ name though. And you did say it wasn’t impossible.” She pointed out.

“Seriously? How many people with a ‘calcified’ complexion that blush in blue colors do you know, exactly? You must know a lot of them to feel so confident on that statement. I for one only know one person. And if we are talking realistically about probabilities, regardless of what they are applied to, then you should know that I’m smart enough to know that there aren’t any absolute certainties of anything. And also as much as I doubt I would ever be in a relationship again, me saying it won’t happen will just invite karmic irony. Classical cliché in every movie ever. Every time someone says that something won’t happen, it does.”

“I… admit that you were right about the first point but the second one!? Really? Movie logic?” Undyne asked as if you were insane.

“Says the person who started plotting with Alphys on how to convince Toriel and Asgore to arrange a marriage between me and Sans because it was one of the most used clichés in anime and manga.” You retorted back with a teasing smile.

“You… heard that?” She faltered.

“Loud and clear. Sensitive hearing, remember?”  
“Yeah…” She looked behind you for a second but, before you could turn to see what she was looking at, her eyes snapped back to you and she asked. “Level with me, Miranda. You say you don’t want a relationship but I still don’t know how you feel about any of the bone bros. or Grillby for that matter.”

“Why are you so pushy about it?”

“Because you never take it seriously when I ask. You just give me a half-assed reply. C’mon, tell me!” Undyne pressed.

“Urgh! Ok, fine! So long as you stop asking!”

“HELL YEAH!” She said. “Start by Grillby!”

“I’m pretty much his charity case. It started by him giving me a meal for having saved MK, he saw the place I was living in and started helping me out, saying that he once knew someone like me or that I reminded him of someone and that I was a good girl. Since then he’d been stopping by my sleeping spot and we started talking about stuff. Then I stopped having a sleeping spot so I started stopping by for lunch. I didn’t go there today, though. Kinda skipped lunch.” You admit. “He’s a nice man, if a by shy, and a complete gentleman. He is also a great father too. I suppose that should make him a prime candidate for many women but we just don’t click that way. If anything, I think he is trying to father me too. Gotta say… compared to the one I had, Grillby is by far the winner on fatherhood stuff.” You chuckled.

You knew that with a comment like that Undyne would feel tempted to chase that subject but, for once, she seemed to resist the topic change. She must take shipping very seriously.

“So… he is more of a father figure to you? That’s a bit disappointing.” She commented.

“That’s life in a nutshell.”

“No, it’s not! I sure as heck can’t say that about my life. I’m going to marry the woman of my dreams and we have adopted the coolest kid!” She contradicted you.

“Well, I should have said ‘my life in a nutshell’ instead, then.” You joked.

Undyne didn’t seem to like your retort one bit but didn’t get discouraged.

“What about Papyrus?” She asked.

“Papyrus is a sweetheart and yeah, it was because of him that I decided to help you all out at the conference. That doesn’t make what I feel about him of the romantic sort. He is extremely cheery and, even when he is feeling down himself, he’ll still try to cheer everyone else up. He may seem somewhat innocent and child-like to many, but he is pretty smart too and pretty mature when the time calls for it. He’s a good lad that will make someone happy someday, I can assure you that much. But as far as I’m concerned, he is more of the little sibling I always wanted but never had. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t see me as more than a metaphorical sister too. Knowing him, and I would dare to say that we do, the moment he actually starts to feel that way about someone it will be pretty obvious. Papyrus is not the kind of guy that is comfortable with lying or hiding things, after all.” And before she could say anything else you added. “Chances are that he’ll also be more than capable of dealing with his own love life too, by the way. If he decides to confess he’ll do it. If he decides not to, which I doubt, he’ll probably have his reasons too. When and if he decides he needs our help then, and only then, should you provide ‘help’.”

“You really won’t let us have any fun?” Undyne frowned a bit but then finally admitted. “But you’re probably right…” She pondered for a bit. “So… just a brother to you?”

“Yep.”

“Well… if you want to legally make him your brother you would just need to marry Sans, don’t you think?” She slyly commented with a barracuda grin and you sputtered.

“No arranged marriage!!!” You shouted out.

“Relax, punk! So, what do you think of the shorty?” Why was there an extra … slyness? When she asked about Sans?

“I gotta say… my first impression of him wasn’t the best. He was trying to check my soul while I was being attacked by would be rapists and… yeah, staring at a woman’s chest, especially if she doesn’t know about souls, isn’t exactly seen as polite. He was very suspicious of me and, I suppose, he does have a reason for it.” You excused him. You still remembered your conclusions about him. Only three kids could have crossed paths with him while in the underground. Of them one had killed his mother and almost killed him and the other had been planning to off Papyrus before Undyne caught them. He really didn’t have many reasons to trust humans, did he?

“I see…?” She said. She still had no idea you know about the souls and you would try your hardest not to give it away. Even Papyrus didn’t know about you knowing about the souls. All you told him was that you knew that an insane human had fallen on the underground and killed his mother.

“We didn’t really start off on a good foot.” You continued. “But we’ve slowly put our differences aside, I guess. I suppose I could consider him a friend but most of the time I don’t even know what he is thinking. I think he now trusts me to a point, I guess. I know he is still hiding some painful stuff and I can’t exactly blame him. If I hadn’t had that PTSD flashback neither of you would know about my past either. I don’t know the extent of his trust in me but…” You thought back to when he told you about the fallen children. He told you himself that he shouldn’t even be telling you that. Just that amount of trust alone was very overwhelming from someone like him. “It’s pretty obvious he trusts me quite a bit. And I think it’s pretty obvious I trust him back, if my less than coherent self felt the need to keep cuddling to him and all that. All I know is that I like to fluster the buh-jesus out of him. You gotta admit, seeing him all blue faced is adorable as fuck.” Especially when you know how frightening he could be if he wanted to. It just added another layer to him.

“So… you find him attractive?”

_**Uh oh!** _

“I… guess?” You admit and then you realized what she had deceived you into doing. “I mean, all of them are, in their own way, and I’m not talking about the physical aspect of it alone, either.”

“Oh? But I don’t really see you compliment Papyrus that way and I’m willing to bet you don’t do it to Grillby either… unless you are punning away with Sans, that is.”

“Don’t I?” You ask. You certainly hadn’t been aware of it if that was the case. “Don’t I always make sure to compliment Pap’s cooking skills whenever he does well and so on?” You remember.  
“True, but…” She protests. “Ok, different question. Who do you find overall most attractive?”

“As in, in general by society’s standpoint or my personal opinion?”

“Geez, you sure are complicated. Just go with both, then!” She retorted feeling frustrated. She probably perceived your need to specify as distraction rather than clarifying what she meant. Well, it was also half true, but you also meant to know in which way she meant it since your opinion would usually be vastly different than other people’s and you were sorely aware of that.

“Ok, on a general standpoint I believe most people would probably point to Grillby as being most attractive with Papyrus being second most. While Paps is tall and athletic, he tends to present himself in a rather quirky way that not all people appreciate. Given enough time to let his personality shine through, though, and they’d find the absolute treasure that he is. Grillby get’s first because not only does he have a great body but he also presents himself with tailor made suits that fit him spectacularly and has a certain gentlemanly charm about him. The fact that he is also a great father and owns his own establishment are also two major keypoints when it comes to the female population hence why he gets first place.”

“And where does Sans stand on the general view?”

“Most people might overlook him at first. Let’s face it, society’s opinion on beauty is on the tall and thin side and Sans is rather short and chubby. How is a skeleton chubby anyway? Aren’t they made of bone?”

“You ask that as if I ever saw him without his clothes on.”

“Anyway, Sans’ winning point is his personality… when he’s not being all threatening that is.” You smirk and imagine him saying ‘you’re really never going to let that go, are you?’ if he was there. “You’d be surprised at how people would be ready to drop their clothes for someone as charming as Sans can be when he is in the mood for it. He is the kind of guy who is a people’s person and that, in it self, already requires a lot of skilled charm. If he actually actively tried to be charming I’m mostly sure he would succeed… if the whole thing didn’t embarrass him as much as it does, which I actually, personally, find very endearing and adorable.”

“Ok, that’s the general view. What about the personal one?”

“That’s a bit more complicated. I never actually though about it before, you see?” You tell her.

“If you had to chose one of them to go on a date with, which would it be?” And before you could ask her to clarify what kind of date she was talking about she added. “The kind of date that ends with a kiss, before you ask.”

You tried to picture what that would entail.

“Grillby would probably be the sort of person to cook at home just for his date. He told me he does know how to cook more than hamburgers and fries but never gets to do it for anyone anymore, aside from his daughter. I’m thinking something classy with wine or a cocktail. Probably some candle light to go along with it too.” You tried to picture kissing him and frowned. “Ok, I don’t think I could kiss him. I mean… After the way he has been fathering me? It would be hella awkward. Like Samurai Jack’s finale sort of awkward.”

“So, he really doesn’t do it for you?” Undyne asked just to clarify.

“Nope. While neither me nor Raj would ever say no to food cooked by him, I just can’t see myself kissing him.” You confirmed. “On to Paps. He doesn’t strike me as having much experience dating and Frisk did tell me about their ‘date’ with him. While he seems to be very keen on the little details, he still seems to lack the confidence to comfortably swoon someone off their feet. Frisk did tell me that he was constantly checking his dating manual for clues on how to act next. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not for me, at least. The fact that someone who doesn’t have much experience goes to those many lengths to try to woo me just shows me that they care and so that would be my opinion of Paps if we did go on a date. As for kissing him…” Once again you tried to picture him kissing you and your expression must have give you away.

“Not doing it for you either, punk?” Undyne asked.

“Yup. I just can’t see him in that light. Sorry.”

“Nah. If it doesn’t work for you then it doesn’t work for you.” She commented before pressing. “What about Sans?”

You couldn’t help but feel suspicious at how easily she let that go when comparing how viciously she shipped you two together before. Something fishy was going on… 

_GOD DAMMIT, SANS! Y U INFECT ME WITH YOUR PUNS!?_ You thought.

“Well… If I were to count him taking me to Snowdin and Waterfall as a date…”

“Wait! HE TOOK YOU TO SNOWDIN TOO!?” Undyne interrupted.

“Erm… yes?”

She chuckled a bit with an expression you could quite place before telling you to continue.  
“Well, I’m not actually sure that’s how a date with him would go. As far as I know he was just trying to keep my mind off of my flashback. For all I know he could have a completely different idea of what a date would be like. One thing is for sure, though. It would always be a great fun with him around. And if I could fluster him into blushing then that would be grand. It’s adorable how he gets so blue when you fluster him. Makes me want to pinch his cheeks.” You could just imagine him in your mind’s eye, cheeks deeply blue after some teasing comment from you.

“What about kissing him?” Undyne interrupted your thoughts momentarily.

You tried to picture it, continuing from your previous point. Perhaps you would fluster him too much and he would just kiss you to shut you up? Perhaps he would preform the ‘yank-and-kiss’ technique? His teeth would then smash against your lips in a passionate kiss… 

_Oh my!_ You can’t help but blush at the scenario.

Undyne started grinning wider at your expression.

“You can picture it just a bit too well, can’tcha?” She asked slyly.

“S-shut up!” 

“So… does it do it for you this time or not, thought I’m pretty sure I already know your answer.” She asks smugly.

You consider lying to her but… what was the point. Your face had been too much of an open book.

“Ok, yeah. I could picture him kiss me without feeling all weird and awkward about it unlike I did with Paps and Grillbs. That doesn’t mean anything more than just that.”

“Come one, admit it. You do find him attractive enough to kiss! You were pretty red. You know it’s true!” She teases you and you blush because she was right. 

_**Ok, this is getting ridiculous.** _

Rajani took over the body.

“Ok, Raj here and I gotta say: I don’t like him! As a part of Miranda, I still get to have a choice on the matter too, after all. And if I don’t approve I don’t see what’s the point. Now that this is all settled let’s go home!”

“Aw!” Undyne said disappointed. “Well, our ride home is already here anyway. Hey, Sans! I know it’s rude not to greet a new pall but it’s twice as rude not to greet someone you are already palls with and trice as rude to eavesdrop on their conversations.

You mentally fluster at him having heard your admissions but none of that showed on Rajani’s face. Sans seemed to be just as flustered to you when you both looked back. He seemed to have been pretending to nap against the building but his blush was very telling.

“Just for the record, I don’t like you because you keep messing with my mind sister and only I have the right to do that and to decide who else should get that privilege. You lost that privilege when you decided to threaten her.” Rajani cleared up while flicking his nostril.

“dully noted.” He finally said, stopping his pretending-to-sleep act.

He teleported the three of you home and you spent the rest of the evening hiding behind Rajani. No matter how much she tried to drag you back into control you wouldn’t have it. You forced her to tell the others you needed rest too after the whole ordeal of the last days and they didn’t doubt the veracity of her words asides, perhaps, from Sans who could just tell when someone was being truthful or not.

How embarrassing!

Gosh, someone had better just kill you before shame did you in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure there won't be any consequences from all of this. Everything will go on just as normal.  
> *insert wide fake smile here*


	48. Chapter 47: A ‘Movie’ing Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Miranda has a serious talk with Sans and Movie Night happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> basically, the results of Undyne's interference in the last chapter and a mix of personal and internet opinions on animated movies ^w^

You were nervous when you relayed your decision to Alphys about your sister and she knew it. You weren’t exactly hiding it very well, after all. She said she would take care of getting the proper paperwork needed and informing your sister of your decision. For now, you would only really need to get ready for hers and Undyne’s wedding. 

The set date was getting closer and closer and you still barely knew anything about it other than that it would be a mix of monster and human western style weddings. They weren’t religious, or at least not in the sense that Christians were, so you were pretty sure they wouldn’t get married in a church. Unfortunately, you were also pretty sure the churches wouldn’t want to wed them either.

At least you already had a dress that would be suitable for a wedding. It was fancy enough for a party, but it was also just casual enough that it would fit almost any scenario that was less chic than that.

Part of you couldn’t help but wonder how Sans would react to you in that dress. You usually only wore button down white shirts and black pants.

…

And part of you just wanted to wack your own head for thinking of Sans in specific. Or would have if you hadn’t rationalized with yourself that everyone else's reaction was pretty easy to guess.

They would all be tickled pink that you would be wearing a dress and would probably compliment you on how well it fitted you, now that you were back to a healthy weight. You might even get an orange blush out of Paps. As for Sans… You thought it was most likely he would spout out a pun of sorts, like when you had gotten dressed up for the court hearing long ago, but it was just as likely as him getting a slight blue blush too?

Nah, he would probably just pun at you, right? He was interested in Toriel after all. He had to be. He just _had_ to!

 ** _He_ totally _is unavailable to you. Yup. No chances he might develop an interest on you._** Rajani concurred in a pacifying yet somewhat sarcastic manner that succeeded in making you feel ridiculous.

 _Shush, you!_ You retorted back, blushing heavily at how ridiculous you were feeling now.

 _**Can we focus back on actually renting Disney movies or do you need to keep going on and on about Sans having the hots for Tori while he is just in the next aisle over checking for whatever he is checking?**_ Rajani sassed right back at you with a mental eye-roll since Rajbot was unable of facial expressions. Thankfully the conversation had been held solely in a mental fashion so there was no risk of him eavesdropping on you… again!

You sighed and silently acknowledged that Rajani was right. You were psyching yourself out about something that didn’t matter to you… That _shouldn’t_ matter to you! Even if he wasn’t so into Toriel as you wanted to believe, that didn’t mean he was interested in you in any fashion. Why would he? He was a monster and you a human. And, above all, you were off the market. You weren’t interest in a relationship in any way what so ever and he had clearly overheard you talking to Undyne about it. Or maybe he hadn’t? That had been very much in the beginning of the conversation, after all.

…you wonder how much he’d managed to overhear…

URGH! This is not what you wanted to think about! 

_Damn you, Undyne, putting weird ideas in my mind!_ You mentally screeched.

You focused back on the movie covers in front of you. You had all decided to do a Disney marathon but you had suggested including a few non-disney movies. Though you weren’t religious, you decided that ‘The Prince of Egypt’ was a great choice. The visuals of the Red Sea parting had bean awesome at the time it had come out and you had loved the song ‘The Moment You Believe’ especially with the Hebrew bit half way through it. Though… you liked the Portuguese version of it more, for some reason. You guessed you might have liked the voices better?

You also took ‘Anastasia’. Like ‘The Prince of Egypt’, ‘Anastasia’ wasn’t a Disney movie either, though a lot of people tended to think it was. You absolutely loved ‘Once Upon a December’. That one you liked to listen to in English as well as Portuguese.

As you searched around for other non-disney movies to add to your collection you still grabbed a few Disney classics like ‘Hercules’, ‘The Lion King’, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘Mulan’. 

‘Hercules’ Had a few nice gospel-like songs that were fun to dance to and sing along, ‘Zero to Hero’ being one of your faves. But most of all it had a genuinely nice main character, even if he was too naïve at some points. Also, who doesn’t like Hades as a bad guy?

‘The Lion King’ also had nice songs to it. You mostly chose it for the Nostalgia Factor, though… and to lift Artemis above your head while ‘The Circle of Life’ played in the background… You can’t be the only person in the world who’s ever done that!

‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ was one of your favorites. It was nice to see a movie where the main character isn’t physically picture perfect. You do feel sad he didn’t get the girl. And you do think Quasimodo is cute in his own way. His shyness and humbleness, for example. You always thought his heart shone through, regardless of his face. Then again you were never big in what was considered attractive for most girls your age. You always took note of personality over looks. You just felt sorry that the sequel was laughable to say the least. Quasimodo deserved a better story than that. The animation suffered a drastic difference in quality and the villain was even lamer than the animation itself.

As for ‘Mulan’ it was self explanatory. She was a kickass ‘disney princess’. 

As for what was left of the Disney princess line up, you took ‘Tangled’, ‘The Princess and the Frog’, ‘Brave’ and ‘Frozen’. You had nothing against the classics but… most of them weren’t that great role models for the current time period, according to several controversies in the internet. 

You did take ‘Beauty and the Beast’, even though there was all that talk about Stockholm Syndrome. Belle was a good role-model as far as you were concerned and, as a big reader, was also one of the few princesses you could empathize with. When she gives up her freedom, she does it for her father not just some prince she had never seen before in her life but was somehow suddenly in love with. She was brave enough to stand up to the Beast when he demanded she had diner with him. She didn’t hesitate on running away, even though she should have planned it better, and actually fought off the wolves away from her horse. She could have left the horse behind to keep herself safe. He was stuck and was an easy prey when compared to a fleeing human. She could have run away after the Beast intervened but decided to help the him instead. She taught the Beast how to be a better man…

Stockholm or not, she was still a great lady!

You would let Frisk chose what other movies to watch if they came with you the next time. Since you weren’t sure of their tastes, you decided to go with your opinion of better role-models.

You also took the whole Toy Story saga. You wondered if you should take Monster Inc. or if it was considered offensive. You decided not to. You already had a big haul of movies to watch and it was better to leave some for a future movie marathon anyway.

You then noticed one movie that you just had to take. Zootopia! It criticized racism in a very smart way, without sacrificing the plot or the characters. Besides! You hoped that the chemistry between Nick and Judy might distract Alphys from you for a while. Even you shipped those two and you were more of a canon shipper usually, instead of a head-cannon one. You hoped there would be a sequel but, in some ways, you were sure that there would always be people that would be unhappy with it regardless. 

The Great Mouse Detective was also another one you picked.

“uh… i think those are enough movies for tonight.” Sans commented, glancing at your ever-growing pile.

You blushed at his sudden intervention, having been completely out of sorts, but then looked back and winced at the amount you had picked.

_Oops!_

“I… hadn’t meant to get so out of hand.” You admit, your blush still in place. You didn’t get a chance to talk to Sans about what he might have overheard yet, hence why you were still so on edge around him. He didn’t seem to mind it much, though.

“i'm not sure we can get through all of these in just one night.” He commented, as if completely unaware of your mental state.

“Right!” 

You looked through the collection you had amassed and took the Toy Story saga out. Those were worthy of a marathon just for themselves. Besides you had never actually gotten the chance to see the last one so it might be a better idea anyway. You also set Anastasia, The great Mouse Detective and The Lion King aside. You would leave them for a later session. Besides, if you were to watch The Lion King, you should also watch the sequel!

“Better?” You asked.

“those are still a lot, but it’s more manageable.” Sans agreed.

“Let’s check these out, then.” You said nervously.

As expected, Alphys and Undyne had plotted for you and Sans to go get the movies by yourselves. At least they had stopped being so… excessive in their shipping. And they seemed to have stopped all shippings aside from the one with Sans. With some luck you might even get them to stop altogether… eventually.

Ok, admittedly that wasn’t very likely.

You still couldn’t believe some of the shippings they had. They were even shipping you with Nedd of all people. They insisted that Nedd seemed to show a lot of care towards you. That was laughable, considering the string of women he messed with, if his phone conversations were to be taken at face value.

You were never one who found the ladies-man attractive. You didn’t care how many women liked them or how many attractive assets they had. You just couldn’t trust those kinds of men. They just fluttered through women like butterflies through flowers and never stuck around.

Fortunately, those two no longer shipped you with Nedd.

No, now they just wanted to smack you against Sans and say ‘and now kiss!’ over and over again until you actually did.

…

Not that you ever would!!!

There was no reason for you to kiss after all. He liked Toriel and you liked no one and weren’t interested in a relationship at all.

You looked back at Sans as soon as you payed the rental of the movies. He… looked odd. Like he wanted to say something to you. So, he was worried about what you said after all.

“Is everything ok, Sans?” You asked, wanting to put an end to all of the awkwardness so that you could be friends again but also praying that he was thinking about something else.

He startled at your question, like you had pulled him from very far away in the recesses of his mind. Had he been that much lost in thought? Then perhaps you shouldn’t have said anything after all.

“o-oh! yeah. was just… thinking.” He said, blue faced.

“About?” You were afraid to ask, but you were done with running.

“erm…” He hesitated. “about what undyne was saying to you yesterday…”

_Darts, I was right!_

“You don’t need to worry about that!” You rushed to say, interrupting him. “Yes, I admitted you are attractive and that I could see myself going on a romantic date with you and all that but you don’t need to worry about me actually wanting to… you know?”

“w-what?” He asked, surprised at your interruption.

You took it as an incentive to continue your ramblings.

“It’s not that you aren’t… you know… good as a potential romantic partner or something. I’m sure you would be a wonderful man to date and all that! It’s just… well… I’m not… 'dateable'. Nor interested on dating in general. As in it’s not you in specific I don’t want to date and all that. It’s more of a general not dating thing. You’re fine as you are, don’t worry. But when I said you were attractive I didn’t mean that I wanted to… you know…” You continued, unaware of his deflated expression.

“no, no. it’s ok. i understand.” He finally interrupted your ramblings, making you focus on him again. “i just wanted to say… that there’s no need to worry. i could tell how… worried you were about it.”

You sighed in relief.

“Thank you! I have been worried you took it as something that isn’t. I guess I worried over nothing. Hehe.” You chuckled awkwardly, scratching at the back of your head.

“sure.” He said nonchalantly.

And yet…

Why did you feel there was something… off about him?

You didn’t know why you felt there was something odd in the whole situation. For all intents and purposes, he seemed to be acting normal and his facial expression seemed just as normal. Why did you feel there was something off? It made no sense. Perhaps you were just paranoid? 

Yeah, that had to be it!

You were probably still worried you would fail at the whole friendship thing. That had to be it.

“It’s just that Undyne kept pressing to see who was most likely out of you, Paps and Grillbs for me to go on a romantic date with and, since I think of Papyrus as a brother and Grillby as a surrogate father, that only left you.” You continue to explain. “If I didn’t give her an answer she just would never stop pestering me. I didn’t want us to become awkward because of this, though.”

“no, no. i understand. i just gotta ask though. why don’t you consider me as a brother too? i'm kind of feeling left out from all of the family get together. what am I going to be, then? the family dog?” He asked with humor but you still felt a sort of tension. You decided to play along.

“Nah, if anything you would be the family cat. A big, lazy and fluffy cat that spends most if his time napping.” You replied.

“you _cat_ ta be _kitten_ me right _meow_! ”

“Wow, I’m impressed! Three puns in the very same sentence? A relatively short one at that? You are upping you game.”

“ya ain’t going to _pussy_ out on the challenge, are ya? ” He pressed.

You smiled real wide. He had just given you a bit a leeway with the sort of wordplay you could use with that one.

“ _Cunt_ you already tell I’ll always be up for the challenge?!”

Sans frowned a bit as he searched for the pun only to turn blue one he finally realized.

“What? _Cat got your tongue_? You gotta admit, you left me that one _wide open_ for me. You should have known I would start _dicking_ around.”

“t-that’s not fair. you shouldn’t _fuck_ with people that way. especially when you are so _anal_ when it comes to pranking you. ” He shot back, recovering spectacularly.

“I never said I wasn’t an _uterine_ hypocrite.”

“that was a _stretch_.”

And with that you were back to punning around without a trace of that tenseness from before. You thought that things were finally back to normal like you wanted them to be. Little did you know that things would never be the same as before. There isn’t a way for a state of matter to return to the exact same as it was before. If someone melts a cube of ice and freezes it back again it might look like the exact same cube of ice, but the atoms have switched places, thus not being the exact same.

And this was what had happened here. Everything seemed the same on the surface, but deep-down things had irrevocably changed and you just didn’t know it yet.

You returned home with Sans as you both laughed at the results of your punning challenge. Papyrus was definitely not amused as you continued punning around for a while, whereas Alphys and Undyne weren’t sure if they should be glad with all of your ‘chemistry’ or be disappointed that things hadn’t progressed further after the 'smart' way Undyne had cornered you into admitting your attraction in a place where Sans would listen.

They later tried questioning you about what went down and decided on the later reaction.

You gave everyone the choice of which movie to watch first and weren’t surprised when everyone chose Zootopia. The other movies were mainly composed of a human cast with a few quirky animal sidekicks and even Princess and the Frog was about two humans turning into animals. Zootopia, however, only had bipedal mammals as its cast and was closest to resemble monster society in looks.

You weren’t surprised when Papyrus' favorite character was Judy. Those two certainly had a lot in common with each other. Surprisingly Nick wasn’t Sans’ favorite. Instead he just couldn’t get enough of how Finnik, the little fenneck fox, had the easiest job ever. He didn’t even have to talk. You supposed he also identified with Finnik’s shortness. You liked him fine but if you had to name a favorite it would be Clawhouser, the fat cheetah. 

Undyne preferred Bogo, but only after he got over his prejudice. She also liked Gazelle because of how she kept defending predators no matter what, even if she was prey. She said that for someone to be so skinny and frail and still be willing to stand up to their beliefs was pretty badass. She also liked Judy, but not as much as the other two. She stated that, while Bogo was wrong to be so prejudiced against her species, it still stood to reason that a recruit fresh from the academy needed to earn their place as time went by and not start demanding better positions right away. Toriel also liked Gazelle, as well as Nick’s mother, even if she didn’t have a major role in the story or a name. She disliked Judy’s parents, however. 

She told you she had once held a similar thought process regarding Frisk but had learned fast that it was an unhealthy way to raise a child. Admittedly, she told you that Frisk was just a child and had been in actual danger regarding the situation itself. On the other hand, you had Judy who, as a kid and, later on, as an adult, constantly had her parents tearing down on her dream just because she could get hurt. Toriel smartly pointed out she was just as likely to get hurt farming, specially with all that farming equipment. However, she did understand their worries thus why she also didn’t hate them completely.

Asgore liked them, though. He thought it was best to prevent future disasters rather than deal with the loss. Toriel disagreed but understood. 

Alphys also liked Clawhouser. She thought he might join her in shipping Nick and Judy too. He could totally be a part of her Shipping club. Frisk’s favorite was Nick which was odd. You had thought they might like Judy best since she was the defender of peace whereas Nick was being more self serving. But then again you remembered what Grillby had told you about Frisk having jumped into the underground of their own volition. No one willingly jumped into a hole where you couldn’t even see the ground without having a reason. Perhaps they saw how Nick’s past affected him and could empathize.

MK liked Judy best too because she could kick tail even though she was so small.

Flowey liked May Bellwhether just to be different from everyone else.

After the movie was over and while deciding which movie to watch next, they discussed a bit of their likes and dislikes regarding the movie and the concepts presented on it.

Next pick was Brave because Undyne liked the title. She liked the story even better, though she didn’t understand why they insisted that Merida should be demurer in her behavior, as gender roles weren’t things commonly practiced in the underground. 

After the movie was over you had to explain the patriarchal society of old and how that affected all roles in gender. You also briefly mentioned that women hadn’t always completely agreed with that and briefly mentioned Jane Austen’s novels. Undyne and Alphys were now interested in watching Pride and Prejudice in movie format since Undyne didn’t like reading and Alphys was too busy for it either.  
If they liked it you would later show them the Lizzie Bennet Diaries on youtube.

And that’s how the night went on. You would watch a movie and then everyone opinionated on it. Everyone liked Tangled, Frozen and The Princess and the Frog. There were some mixed reactions to Hercules because how some monsters were depicted and how the Titans had been locked underground, thought they realized that, in the story, the titans had been the bad guys. Still they could help but wonder if that was a variant of their own story. You seriously doubted that since the Titans’ original Greek story was older than their curse if what they had told you was true. There were also mixed reactions to Beauty and the Beast because of the whole 'monster=bad' shtick, though they liked Belle just fine. Mulan sparked yet another discussion on women in society and you explained that, though Chinese culture of filial piety dictated just the opposite of what Mulan does throughout all of the movie, the original Chinese tale was still one of the most renowned in China. The Hunchback of Notre Dame sparked a debate over what is considered beautiful and Rajani revealed that Quasimodo was actually on fourth place in your Disney list of men because of his personality. At last you all watched The Prince of Egypt whose beginning made Toriel cringe badly and everyone else gasp in horror. You explained about slaves and about the bible passage related to Moses. 

Overall you suppose it was a very enlightening experience for the monsters and you were getting more and more convinced that monsters were far better than humans in almost everything if not even everything at all. You had always been big on gender equality and the mere fact that they discounted genders as influencing what roles one should have or how one should be expected to act was a big point in their favor as far as you were concerned.

It was already dawning when you were finally done with the movies and you slowly fell asleep with the music of the final credits of the last movie rolling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is why you shouldn't force people the way Undyne did. If she had done it without Sans being around Miranda would have stayed introspective and actually _thought_ about it. Instead she set all those issues aside completely because she was more concerned with Sans' take on the whole thing. She didn't even really got to actually think about whether she really is attracted to him or not (as seen in her speech pattern), because she was too worried he might take what he heard as a 'take me, I'm yours' instead of a 'I'm confused!!!'.
> 
> Once she was done dealing with the pressing Sans issue she didn't even spare a second glance towards the feeling Undyne had pointed out because, in her mind, the issues were now settled and completely solved.
> 
> Moral of the story: Be careful with how you ship your friends, kids! Push too hard and you might actually push them apart instead!!! 8D
> 
> PS: I actually HATED writing this chapter. -_- It was necessary because now Miranda will be even more determined on resisting her emerging feelings (for the angst!!!) and also to point out that sometimes you should rule yourselves in when shipping people instead of characters. I've seen people victims of peer pressure into getting together. Sometimes people who really actually liked each other but were too shy to say anything drift further apart and people that ultimately didn't fit together having the crappiest relationship and coming out pretty bruised from the ordeal.


	49. Chapter 48: If It Exists…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne does damage control while referencing more plot stuff. Nedd has an interesting conversation with you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone who managed to guess what this chapter's tittle references before actually reading the chapter gets a imaginary cookie.
> 
> (on a side note I uploaded this chapter a little late. sorry.)

The following days seemed normal enough. Undyne and Alphys had indeed toned down their shipping. The setback was that, somehow, they had managed to involve Nedd too. 

You found out that Nedd had been the one to convince Greg to let you go home early on the day that Undyne came to get you. Undyne had overheard Sans telling Papyrus he would come and get you and had apparently asked Ned to do it. It had all been so that Undyne could take a walk with you, somehow induce a conversation or your way back about your potential attraction to Sans so that he would overhear you when he showed up to get you. 

You, of course, had been dumb enough to ask about them two shipping you with Leveret, which, of course, lead to romance and sex talk. Just what Undyne had needed.

Well at least now you had cleared everything up with Sans, much to the scale-shippers disappointment. 

Yeah, those two really hadn’t been too happy with it. 

The following day Sans hadn’t been too thrilled on coming to get you from work. He even told you he planned on not going at all. Undyne had to convince Papyrus to talk him into doing it and promise not to interfere by staying next to Papyrus the whole time. While Papyrus had been more than satisfied with that promise, that hadn’t been enough for Sans, of course.

So, she told him something. Something he later repeated to you and alarmed you greatly. The reason why she wanted Sans to come and get you wasn’t just for the sake of getting you two alone for a bit. In fact, as she had pointed out, doing so wouldn’t really benefit their shipping schemes. With Sans’ teleportation, you two wouldn't really be ‘alone’ together for any significant amount of time. She had insisted on him coming to get you for a far more serious matter.

So far you had managed to stay hidden from the organization. The fact that you kept your head down and stayed as far away from any antimatter project helped greatly. 

But now both you and your sister were consenting on having tests run on you…

Supposedly they could keep things on the down low in Alphys’ department. She had assured you only her people would deal with you for the sake of privacy. She would present the reports with a code name for both you and your sister to both the other labs and the military. 

Yes, the military!

You hadn’t known that the military had been involved. You knew that the attack at the Oceanarium had been for the sake of getting an American war leader to back off on their investigation. You had suspected they wouldn’t just drop it out of the blue, since no corporation, governmental or not, liked to get the drop on them. You hadn’t expected to find out that they had several undercover operatives trying to track down any potential ‘banshee’ they could find. You didn’t think they had found you. After all, if they had, why hadn’t they approached you before?

Thing was, now that you were a volunteer, it was far easier for the organization to find you. Alphys had managed a deal with the military of not look into your life in case they had a mole but that was pretty minor protection if any of them managed to bypass Alphys’ firewalls on the computer. As good as she was with it, she wasn’t flawless.

That was enough to make you feel paranoid for a while but Sans assured you him coming to get you was just extra-precaution more than anything.

While getting Sans to come get you at your work place wasn’t active shipping on their part, other things sure were. On the days leading to the wedding they had tried to get you alone with Sans any moment they could without raising any suspicions… which meant, thankfully, that it didn’t happen a lot. 

The most they had gotten was matching you up to be paired with him in the lineup of bridesmen and bridesmaids. That meant you were, technically, his date and he was required to dance at least once with you. Because of that they also got to sit him next to you at the wedding reception.

You… still didn’t really know what to expect of the wedding. You knew it would be a mash up of both typical western styled wedding and traditional monster wedding, which had a lot of common roots with several native American traditions.

Unfortunately, everyone had been too busy to explain it to you. Sometimes you even doubted anyone else, but for the two brides themselves, knew exactly how it was going to go. The preparations seemed chaotic at best.

One of the few things that was taken care of, though, was the move. The piano had been moved to their new place soon enough that Undyne never got a chance of publicly embarrass you by demanding you to play a song. They finished moving their stuff on the eve of the wedding itself. After the reception, they would go directly to their new place with MK instead of in a honeymoon.

Monsters still weren’t even allowed to leave the state until all other American stated had approved of monster related legislation, let alone other countries. Honeymoon would have to wait until then. Besides, Alphys was far too busy with her work and, having just started recently, Undyne wasn’t eligible for a vacation period just yet. While a bit sad over it, they didn’t seem that disheartened. If anything, they seemed more intent on saving up money to have the best vacation/honeymoon with MK when the time finally came.

You wished you had their positivity…

You were snapped out from your mind’s inner workings by someone slapping your shoulder in an overly friendly manner. You looked back at Nedd with a wide grin that meant he wanted to question you some more either about Rajani or, as was now recently a preferred topic of his, Sans. 

Rajani, who had been flying around just because she could -and probably to make you jealous as well-, decided to float around nearby in case she needed to intervene.

“What is it?” You asked.

“Soooooo. Tell me… How are things going with your Skeleton Bae?” He asked and you immediately groaned.

“He is _not_ my bae. Or _my_ skeleton, for that matter.” You told him off.

“So… things are not _going_ just yet, yeah?” He tries to clarify.

You sigh in exasperation.

“What makes you think there’s even a ‘yet’ to begin with?” You retorted back a bit harshly. You were getting sick and tired of having to explain over and over that you didn’t want a relationship right now.

“I saw the sparks flying at the Halloween party. Plus, I have it in a good scaly source that there are even more sparks going on at the compound.” He commented.

“Oh, come on! If you’re going to take someone else’s word about said ‘sparks’, at least do it from someone who _doesn’t_ have a vested interest in shipping everyone and everything! And what do you mean with the Halloween party thing?” You retort.

“I saw you two on the dancefloor.” Nedd slyly with a wink.

“Yeah. _Dancing_. Which is what people _do_ on a _dance_ floor.” You pointed out slowly as if talking to someone really, really dumb.

“Sure, you two were dancing, but I saw the way you looked at each other when you were dancing to the Lady Antebellum’s song.”

“Which song?” You asked confusedly. You only really knew two Lady Antebellum songs: ‘Need You Now’ and ‘Wanted You More’. You didn’t recall any of them having been played that night.

“Oh, you know which one! You kept humming ‘Can’t Take My Eyes of You’ for days on end. It almost drove me nuts!” He accused you.

“What?” You tried to assimilate what he had said.

You thought back to the week after the Halloween party and finally remembered the tune you kept humming. Even Papyrus had noticed and asked you about it. And… hadn’t Frisk made a comment about it too? They… They told you it had been the one right before the movie and you’d thought they were referring to the Halloween one!

Now that you thought back to it… you had a slow dance with Sans before the movie began. It had been this song, hadn’t it?

“Oh! I remember now.” Was your only comment.

“If you do, then you must remember the sparks. Crissy told me she heard you call him handsome during the ‘This is Halloween’ song and I was dancing near you when he said your eyes are pretty when ‘Can’t Take My Eyes of You’ ended. And those are just the verbal cues! Don’t get me started on your body language!”

Dammit, you had almost managed to make yourself forget the pretty eyes thing! You didn’t need to be reminded of how weak you were to someone complimenting your eyes, especially if it was someone who already had someone else on their mind!

“You also compliment a lot of people on a regular basis, mostly ladies on the phone. Does that mean you want a serious relationship out of all of them?” You shot back.

It was a weak response, considering he was a ladies’ man. It’s not like he would be ashamed of all of his ‘open relationships’ by you pointing them out.

“True, but we are talking about you here. And also how you looked at Sans with stars in your eyes. I’m not even joking! The way you were looking at him, one would have thought you were going to kiss or something!”

“Man, those two really got to you, didn’t they? Now you’re every bit of a shipper as they are.” You said after calming yourself down from the accusation with a heavy sigh.

“I didn’t need to be an active shipping club member to ponder on the idea that you might be smitten with the small skeleton. There was already a pool going on the office before Undyne and Alphys started talking to me on a regular basis.”

“You made a betting pool on my love life!!!?”

“Nope! Crissy did it!”

You were going to kill the chief editor when you got your hands on her!

“How can you be so awful to the point of doing this!?” You asked feeling your eyes burning.

It was so unfair. You knew that it was all fun and games to them. They had no idea what you were going through. 

It’s wasn’t their fault that they didn’t know you couldn’t afford to have someone like that in your life. You knew that! But still you couldn't help but feel aggravated that every single one of them seemed to be willing to put aside what you said you wanted just for shit and giggles. You had told Nedd several times that you couldn’t have a significant other right now whenever he came with the talk of shipping you with Sans. You hadn’t told him about Sans liking Toriel because that was something that Sans probably wouldn’t want to be known and you couldn’t tell him about what happened with the antimatter bomb to explain just how upside down your life was right now so all you could tell him was that you weren’t in a position, neither economically nor emotionally, to get a significant other. You had hoped he would have come to respect your needs. The fact that everyone was so willing to ignore your words and, even worse, have fun with the fact that your life was a wreck just angered you beyond reason.

= **Ok, ok! Enough of this! If you don’t stop tormenting my mind sister with that overly hyped topic, I’m going to have to get rough with you! Don’t test my patience ‘cause I don’t have a whole lot of it!!!** = Rajani interfered, floating in front of Nedd’s face.

She had indigo electrical sparks coming off of her, which was doing a great job on conveying the threat on her tone of voice that her permanently frozen facial expression could not.

_**If you are going to say that you are unaffected by romantic feelings towards the Cueball, the least you could do was ignore these sorts of remarks. Reacting will only make someone like Nedd and the scale duo think that you do have feelings.**_ Rajani scolded you mentally.

You weren’t quite sure how she managed to keep her robot body floating and giving out sparks while she talked to you, but at the moment the current topic took precedence over that little fun fact.

_But… I’m just so tired! Why can’t they understand!?_

_**You don’t really want me to answer that truthfully, do you?**_ Rajani stated out.

_What do you mean?_

_**Look. Deny it all you want but even you have already noticed the signs. You just don’t want to see them and I know that trying to force you to see will do more harm than good. This is all I’m going to say about the issue, lest you decide to go hostile on me because of it.** _

_Are you accusing me of having feelings for Sans!? You know that’s not true!_

_**Like I said: this is all I’m going to say on the subject. Whether you don’t have them and are just frustrated over all this shipping or do have them but refuse to see it because you are deathly afraid of it and deny everyone who ‘accuses’ you, it’s up to you. Either way, I’ll stand by you. But you aren’t going to get me to fight with you just so I admit you are right.** _

_Raj!_

_**Look. I’m not saying that they are right. I’m saying that, in the end, the mere fact that you are giving them this much thought is why they keep pestering you. And perhaps it is because you are frustrated with all the attention they keep giving it like you said. But… You do have to admit there is a ‘but’ here. Anyway. Whichever it is, I’m on your side no matter what.** _

_…ok…_

“Ok, ok, I’ll stop!” Nedd finally said, outside of your mind, as Rajbot started to spark out twice as before. “I’m still wondering what’s up with the skelepun, though. I merely just got sidetracked.”

= **He’s working overtime a lot lately. It’s probably because Christmas is coming.** = Rajani told him before you could.

“Oh! So that’s why he seems so tired lately!” Nedd nodded. “But… why are you still here right now? Isn’t your work done for the day?”

“He still had another hour of work before he had to leave and, since he has been appointed by Undyne to be my designated ride home, I’m waiting.”

“A ride home, you say…” Nedd said with a sly smile

“Don’t get any ideas. He can teleport. It doesn’t take more than two seconds at best. That isn’t exactly the sort of quality time you want to tease me about.” You warned, narrowing your eyes, still on edge.

“Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!” He pouted. “By the way, did you get the soon-to-be-weds anything yet? I’ve… run out of ideas.”

“I didn’t know they had invited you.” You said, as it had been a complete surprise to you.

“How could they not invite the newest member of their shipping club to come to their wedding?”

“True.” You admitted. “I bought them… some stuff that they should be able to use a lot.”

“What? Like household items?” He asked.

“… something like that…” You said slowly.

No way in hell were you about to tell him that you bought a set of kinky shit for them to try! The only reason you even bought it for them was because the conversations you heard from their room sometimes mentioned the lack of certain tools so you were going to put that knowledge to use. You didn’t write your name on the gift but you were pretty sure they would guess it quickly enough.

“Now you gotta tell me what you got them.”

“Nope. That’s for me to know, them to find out and you to ask about.”

“Meanie.”

“Cupid wanna be!”

“With pleasure.”

“Not mine, that’s for sure.”

He stopped at the potential implication of what you said making an expression that resembled the famous Lenny Face. This was one word play he certainly couldn’t resist.

“Oh, if we have our way it’ll be yours for sure. Along with a certain skeleton’s too.” He said.

“What?” You asked, feeling confused as Rajani burst laughing. Suddenly you understood the word play and blushed. “OH! NO! Just NO! You evil, evil man!”

“How can I be evil when I’m plotting a way for you and Sans to have as much pleasure with each other as you want?”

You blushed harder as several images -that would need mental bleach later- came to mind with his words.

What sort of lover would Sans be? Would he dominate you into submission as he fucked you raw? Would he be sweet and tender as he took you. Would he want you to be the one dominating him? Several sex positions came to mind with each scene but those begged the question of how he looked like underneath his clothes. He had admitted he had a dick but what did it look like? A mental picture of his tongue came to mind. You couldn't help but imagine a blue transparent magic dick hanging fully erect from his pelvis. The size varied from position to position since you had no possible reference of size when it came to him.

You realized too late that your mind was downright exploring all those scenarios with too much glee for your comfort and stopped, blushing deeply.

“SHUT UP YOU SICK PERVERT!" You yelled at Nedd while twisted sexual fantasies of your sort of friend kept rushing through your brain. Rajani was staring at you from the bot but her prema-frozen robotic expression gave nothing away about her opinion.

“Pervert? But I never said that the pleasure was of the sexual nature.”

He… really didn’t. Which only made you blush harder that you had thought of it first and foremost. Worse: You had the gall to actually picture it! Rajani was now laughing her robotic ass off again.

“I-I know you! I know how you think!” You said both because it was true, knowing Nedd's taste for sexual innuendos and because you needed something to distract you from the image of you running your fingers through Sans' ribs that had popped into your mind.

“True… but you still thought of sex first, didn’t you? Guess you’re as much of a pervert as I am.”

= **She sure is.** = Rajani added, still laughing. Nedd had no knowledge of your thoughts but she had. This was clearly a dig to your lascivous train of thought that made you redden to the level of a particularly ripe cherry.

“erm… did i come at a bad time?”

You turned around at the new arrival, becoming, much to your surprise, even redder as you saw Sans standing there. How you could become that red was beyond you. You were pretty sure you were starting to enter the realm of the infra-reds. Last thing you needed was for Sans to overhear something potentially compromising again. 

“N-no! You arrived at the perfect time! Let’s go before this… this _heathen_ tries to defile your mind too!” You tell him, rushing to his side.

“… wut?” He asked confused as the two behind you burst laughing at the creative insults you tossed Nedd’s way.

“See you tomorrow at the wedding!” Nedd called out as Rajani rushed to get a ride back with you two.

Sans teleported out as soon as Rajbot grabbed you.

“do i want to know?” He asked.

“Nope!”

“was it more shipping stuff?”

“Shipping stuff times a Marioplex.”

“a what?”

“It’s something that MatPat from The Game Theorists came up with. I’ll show you later.”

“…” He said nothing, thought he still looked intrigued.

= **Nedd was 34 ruling you two.** = Rajani informed him just for the heck of it as you squeaked in embarrassment.

“what’s 34 ruling?”

“No, Raj!”

= **Sorry, hun, but he has a right to know, especially if there are people doing that with his image, even if only mentally.** =

Outch, that burn really hurt you right down to the soul.

_**Drama queen.** _

“I’m leaving” You said, rushing to leave the entrance hall.

Rajani ignored you.

= **Rule number 34 of the internet dictates that, if it exists, there’s porn of it. By saying that Nedd was 34 ruling you and Mir I meant that he was implying sex stuff.** =

“oh!”

You looked back to see Sans’ face a bright blue instead of white. Well, at least you got a cute expression from him out of your embarrassment. He looked so shocked that there were people thinking of him having sex with you. To be honest you were too, especially since one of them was you yourself, but… Darn, was he adorable!

With that you proceeded towards the dinner table. You were starving and wanted to get plenty of energy for the reading that night. You were going to read the bank robbery part of the Deathly Hallows and wanted to convey as much emotion as you possibly could.

Still… Why did Sans have to be so adorable, goddamit!!!???

This was only going to make things harder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, can you imagine how this would have gone if Miranda hadn't had he mind so set on how she had already done damage control for her conversation with Undyne? Still entertaining regardless.
> 
> Next chapter we get part 1 of the wedding arc.


	50. Chapter 49: Opening Remarks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wedding part 1  
> MTT brand of 'torture'  
> Also the day Sans' hotness won't be ignored ;P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow I won't be able to post the chapter in a prompt manner so I'm posting it a day early.

You woke up… felling a bit moody actually. No real reason why either. You just were.

However, you put your less than stellar emotions aside as you got up and started getting ready. Today was wedding day and you were going to look your best for Undyne and Alphys’ sake.

First stop was bathroom… which was already occupied by Papyrus on your floor. The floor below was already occupied as well. You had no choice but to head to the third floor after begging Papyrus to toss your stuff your way as you blindly -because you were making a point not to look- felt around the floor for your items.

Once somewhat presentable you returned to your room and dressed the dark blue dress you had selected. You tied a decorative black belt with golden accents around your waist line and put on a pair of black heels, hoping you wouldn’t walk too weirdly with them on. That done, you dressed a bathrobe to protect your outfit and went down for breakfast.

…

The kitchen was a mess.

There were several pots everywhere with a variety of foods as Toriel rushed from one side to another. Surprisingly, Grillby was there too. You guessed Undyne must have asked him to cater to the wedding. He was the only one present who seemed somewhat calm in the kitchen. 

You hadn’t told him of your past. You had asked Sans to do it for you because you felt that, as the first one who cared after you, he deserved knowing that as well instead of feeling left out. Sans never got the time so, one day, Rajani flew her bot there and told him. The next time you took lunch break there he came out from behind the bar to hug you close, leaving all those around, aside from his daughter, flabbergasted.

Now, as he saw you once again, he gave you another hug. It seemed as if he was trying to compensate for the lack of familial love you had for those three long years. Today the hug was far more casual, though. A simple one-armed over-the-shoulder sort of hug as he dragged you to the table for you to sit down. He sat you next to his daughter, Fuku, who greeted you warmly as she rushed to finish her food so she could help out decorating the gardens where apparently the wedding would be set.

You ate your food somewhat peacefully. You were literally incapable of rushing while eating. You always got a stomach ache or felt extremely nauseous after eating too fast, hence why you refused to do it. If for some reason there was no time to eat at a slow enough pace you would either not finish the meal, much to your regret, or not eat at all.

Several people rushed by the kitchen, seemingly not paying attention to those sitting there. There were monsters you didn’t even know rushing by. The only ones you really didn’t see from the household were the two brides and Sans. 

…

Made sense.

Both Undyne and Alphys must be finishing up the makeups and hairdos and all that and Sans was most likely -read definitely- still asleep.

As soon as you were done with breakfast you washed your teeth again to get them nice and white and rushed back into your room to add the final details to your outfit. Hair was the complicated part. Since you avoided wasting money unnecessarily you had tried to cut it yourself and, while you had gotten better with time, it was still somewhat choppy at the tips. It wasn’t as pronounced as the choppiness in Kida’s hair from Atlantida, thankfully.

Still, it limited what you could actually do with it, especially since only a few strands reached past the shoulders.

As you were pondering on it, your bedroom door burst open with a lot of glitter and lights beams and mist, making you jump like one of your cats when spooked. You dove for the nearest cover and grabbed the nearest object to use as a weapon.

Turned out that the nearest cover were a few empty boxes where your winter clothes were kept once and your defense weapon was a semi-functional umbrella. Still, you kept your muscles tense as you waited for the fog to clear, too spooked to rationalize that, with all that flare and pink, it was practically impossible that it might be someone from the organization.

You startled a bit when a familiar male voice said ‘Oh YEAH!’ until you finally managed to recognize it. Still, you remained tense until the smoke cleared enough for you to recognize Mettaton standing in front of the open and abused, but still resiliently standing, door. How that door managed to survive the abuse so well was beyond your level of comprehension, but you were grateful. It also helps that Mettaton in not as strong as Undyne… you think… Was he?

The robot finally spotted you after looking around for a bit.

“Oh! There you are, darling! I just finished the last touches to the brides and even took care of Frisk too so I decided to come spruce you up a bit as well! Have you already selected an outfit?”

“Uh-uh?” You nodded, carefully walking around the boxes and checking if everything was still in place after the lass scamper you had performed earlier in your attempts to find cover. Fortunately, it was.

“Let me take a look.” He drew near and, with a twist of his arm, he took one of your hands and twirled you around before you could think to protest. “Gotta say, not my style but you certainly can rock that dress. You should wear this sort clothes more often. It flatters your body-type too. I love how you used the belt to empathize your waist and how the skirt flares out just enough so as not to attract all the attention to your wide hips. Not that they aren’t gorgeous, darling, ‘cause they are. But they look better as they are now in relation to the rest of your body. Even _I_ ’m not just 100% legs, after all -though they are my selling point-.”

“O-ok.” You said, not really keeping up with his monologue. All you really knew was that he seemed to agree with your taste in clothes. You were more distracted by the other addition to the room… aside from the familiar Bubbah who, as usual, kept guard with the same straight expression as ever. It was an orange cat monster who seemed very much grumpy and heavily loaded with an assortment of fashion dealies you could barely begin to classify, since they were so many.

He finally looked up and crossed eyes with you and you rose a hand in a greeting manner.

“Sup.” You said.

He seemed slightly surprised at your greeting but seemed to shrug it of with practiced ease, replying with yet another equally monosyllabic sentence. 

This interaction went somewhat unnoticed by the robot, as he continued to rant about fashion statements and how you could have so much more impact if you didn’t hide behind the same dull sort of attire every day.

“Now, now, darling. Let’s see what you have of jewelry and make-up.” Metteton pushed you towards your dresser.

Instead of going there you turned towards some of the unopened boxes, much to his chagrin. He probably thought that looking pretty was major priority to everyone, you included. You quickly found the right box. You did go through the trouble of painstakingly writing the information on the outside, after all.

He ‘tsk’-ed at your great amount of fake jewelry when compared to real gold, silver and gems. You refused to wear any of those valuable item’s, though. They were more of a sentimental thing, now more so than ever, so he settled for a pair of fake earrings with vivid cerulean fake gems forming the shape of a flower encased in some golden colored metal trying to pretend it was gold. He proceeded to do your hair, cutting it more evenly and styling it into a wavy sort of way and braiding a portion of it up front and pinning it back.

He did seem to like the chokers that Raj had asked you to buy for her. Raj did always have a weird fascination with chokers, now that you thought about it. 

Speaking of her.

You knew she was already awake but for some reason she wasn’t using her bot just yet. She must have sense your inquiry because it didn’t take long for her to elucidate you.

_**I don’t want Fancy Terminator over here to start poking and prodding at me.**_ She complained.

_So I have to go through it on my own?_

_**I guess…?** _

_You know he is just going to chase you down like a frightened rabbit once he sees you, right?_

_**Not if I can’t help it.** _

_Well, I don’t think that is very fair. I won’t stand for it._ You said back as a wicked grin grew on your mouth.

_**You wouldn’t.** _

_I totally would. No. Not would. … WILL!_

“Hey, Metts?” You called out, completely forgetting how you weren’t that informal with him before.

“Yes, darling?” He asked, not seeming that bothered by the nickname.

“Have you seen Rajani’s new body?”

“She has a body of her own now?” He asked.

“Yup!” You point to the mechanical doll that was beginning to light up now that Rajani was in a hurry to escape.

“Oh, darling, you can’t go to a wedding looking like that!” Mettaton blurted out as soon as he saw her.

= **Oh hell no!** = Was all Rajani said before she flew her robotic body out of the door.

You had hoped Mettaton would follow her but instead he turned to the cat monster.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Go get her!”

The cat monster grumbled a lot under his breath but left the room all the same. That done, the celebrity turned to you again with a huge smile.

“Now, where were we… Oh! Right make up!”

_God no!_

“Erm… I prefer a more natural look. Very minimalist to enhance what is already there and such.” You said hoping it would keep him from getting carried away. Also, so that he wouldn’t try to use eyeliner, especially on your water line. You never really liked to mess around with your eyes much and eye lining the lid was already a task for you, let alone doing it in the water line. It was downright torture!

…

He did try to convince you to use eyeliner. You had to put the foot down. He also decided, as revenge, to tease you about all the hot news he got from the scale duo about how they shipped you with Sans now. You teased him back with his little crush on Papyrus. There was a ‘Mexican Stand-off: Make-up Edition’ and you weren’t willing to lose this one.

Fortunately, the cat man managed to capture Rajani somehow and interrupted your glaring. You quickly took the chance to abscond from scene. Once you were as far away from your room as possible, you managed to hide away from further robot torture by making yourself as useful as possible. That way he couldn’t snatch you away again and, considering how surrounded you were on all sides, you could also threaten to out his crush in front of everyone

There was a large tent covering several tables and chairs, probably for the reception, and Papyrus was trying to arrange it as neatly as possible so you joined him. Once he saw you he complimented you on your dress and you have got to say that he looked quite dapper in his tuxedo, even if he was still wearing his scarf.

He told you that the wedding cake would be provided by Muffet, which didn’t surprise you much aside from the fact you had yet to see her. Apparently, she would be arriving much later to make sure her cake would be as fresh as possible.

You asked him about how the wedding was going to go but he seemed every bit as clueless as you. At least the reception area seemed to be every bit the same as the typical human wedding reception so you didn’t feel that much out of depth. This was all too rushed for your tastes, though. It was pure chaos! You… didn’t deal well with chaos. 

When you, Papyrus and some other random monsters you were sure you had never seen before, as well as very familiar dog monsters, finally managed to finish setting up the reception area. The other groups had also done their tasks to completion too. Feeling a bit rumpled from all the carrying stuff back and forth, you were very much relieved to know that the celebrations were about to ensue. Papyrus left to fetch his brother once and for all. You were mentally begging for a chair to sit down. You really shouldn’t have worn heels.

Fortunately, there would be some seats… except that you were one of the bridesmaids.

Before you could process what that meant, someone shoved a little flower arrangement, a corsage with lilies of the valley, daffodils and an echo flower, on your wrist. All the flowers were tied down with a bright red ribbon, which seemed like such an odd choice and yet it didn’t clash as much as you had expected it to. The one who so roughly shoved that flower arrangement on you had been Mettaton who had returned from your room, clasping a struggling Rajani in his hand, wearing the corsage as a headpiece.

“Now, now, darling. Don’t go ruining all of my work until after the wedding.”

= **Don’t ‘darling’ me, you massive tin can!** = She protested.

You looked around for the cat man that had been with the robot but didn’t really see him in the crowd that would be watching the wedding. You finally did manage to find him carrying a massive camera around. Poor guy. He seemed tired.

Mettaton started positioning you and what few other bridesmaids and bridesmen that were currently there. Most of them you hadn’t seen before.

There would be two rows, one for each bride. You and Rajani were on the one designated for Undyne. There was an empty space in front of you for Papyrus since he was sort of the Best Man to Undyne (as soon has he had heard the tittle he had went ballistic for it). There was an armored massive rabbit monster just after you, followed by a four dog monsters you were pretty sure were named Dogaressa, Greater Dog, Lesser Dog and Doggo. 

On the other row Mettaton had taken the role of Man of Honor (his words), an empty spot for Sans across from you, followed by an odd, melty looking monster that resembled some sort of… you weren’t sure. It had a beak and feathers, seeming a bit bird like, but in its face there were at least three other faces inside: two where the eyes should have been and one with a single eye at the top of her head. Apparently Rajani would be paired up with her. You were seriously creeped out but didn’t show it. Rajani was distressed as well, not knowing if that was normal monster behavior or not. After her (Mettaton had called her Mrs. Snowdrake so they had to be female) there was a bat like monster in armor pairing up with the buffed-up Rabbit monster, followed by Dogamy and then three more melty looking monsters that gave you the creepy crawlies.

You really didn’t know what to think of those four monsters. Even though you knew that they were just like any other monster, probably very nice too, a part deep in the recesses of your soul couldn’t help but shiver in discomfort at their presence. It was like it was telling you they weren’t natural and you couldn’t help but feel disgusted at your own self for such harsh judgement towards someone you didn’t even know. You were beginning to sound like those racists that kept attacking the monsters because ‘it wasn’t natural’.

Papyrus returned with Sans. At first you didn’t see much of him since he was pretty much draped on Papyrus’ back. You had expected to have a laugh at how uncomfortable he would be in a suit, probably share a joke or two about it as he spouted fancy clothing themed puns. What you hadn’t expected your reaction to seeing him in a suit.

When you finally got to see him in his suit, after Papyrus plopped him down, still half dazed from his sleep, you immediately felt a thump in your chest. 

He looked so handsome in formal wear! 

The suit was navy blue with cyan accents and perfectly tailored to him. It even made him seem thinner. Or maybe it was his fluffy jacket that made him seem fatter? That wasn’t to say he was perfectly thin. He wasn’t. There was clearly a bit of a belly there, which you really couldn’t care less. 

You couldn’t care less because suddenly you realized that you felt attracted to your friend. And with that you couldn’t help but think of all that implied. All the things you didn’t want to happen. The fear was real. You panicked. All you had running in your mind was: Oh god, he’s hot!!!!!! Mayday! Mayday! Blood pressure increasing! Pupils dilating! Dopamine skyrocketing! Serotonin levels falling fast! Rebooting system ASAP!

Rajani sighed in a resignation that you couldn’t comprehend and bopped you in the head while the others were distracted.

_**So, you realized that Sans is hot as well as cute! What’s with the mental break down?**_ She said in your head with a huff.

_B-but… I’m not supposed to feel this way about him. I can’t. He likes Toriel and I-_

_**Whoah, whoah, WHOAH! Are you listening to yourself? So now thinking someone is physically attractive means that you are in love with them too immediately? Besides, it’s not the first time you thought he was attractive in any way.** _

_I… Oh._

_**Yeah, ‘oh’ is right. Geez, what a way to turn a gentle breeze into a full-blown tornado.** _

_Yeah, you’re right. Just because I think he’s attractive it doesn’t mean that I want to date him. it just means that I’m a perfectly healthy young woman! Why the hell was I even freaking out about this anyway?_

_**Meh, who knows.**_ Rajani shrugged but you sense she knew more than she let on. 

For some reason, she wasn’t coming forward with that information and that disturbed you. So, for as relieved as you were that you were just finding him attractive and nothing more, you couldn’t help but find it strange that you had gotten this freaked out over it when usually you wouldn’t and questioned if Rajani really knew why you were so freaked out and why she wouldn’t tell you. It wasn’t like you were afraid of actually having fee-. 

Yeah, you were sure that wasn’t the case! That couldn’t be why you were freaking out! You were CERTAIN!

_**You look like a sap. Snap out of it before you get teased some more.**_ Rajani interrupted your musings.

You quickly gathered your thoughts back together and when the skeleton brothers and Mettaton (who’d been strapping the flowers on the front of their suits) turned back to you, you could pass for a normal person with ease once more, instead of a drooling buffoon.

Sans froze up upon seeing you, cheeks a bit blue.

“Good day, Sans. How was your nap?” You asked politely, trying to hide the sudden awkwardness you had going. 

What was wrong with you!? And no, he wasn’t blushing. It was just your imagination.

“o-oh. fine. y-you know how good i am at sleeping. i could even do it with my eyes closed.” He replied, sounding a tad dazed like you had snapped him out of some sort of day dream. He must still be half asleep or something.

“You look handsome in that suit by the way.” You forced yourself to say. 

Normally you would have found it easy to say that. You had said it to Papyrus just earlier. Why were you having trouble admitting it out loud right now. Did you actually- Nah. Nope. Just regular old attraction and nothing more. After all, you weren’t feeling attracted when you complimented Papyrus while you are feeling it now with Sans. Yeah, that was it. No deeper meaning at all.

Sans flushed a deep blue color at your compliment and started pulling at his collar in a hopeless attempt at getting it a bit looser. 

“erm… thanks, brownie.” He said and, before you could protest the nickname he added. “you look stunning in that dress too.”

You blushed at the sincere compliment and felt weirdly shy all of the sudden. Not that you weren’t usually shy on a daily basis when it came to compliments but… never this sort of fluttery butterflies in the stomach kind of shy. What was wrong with you!?

“Thanks.” You said, staring at your toes.

“Come on, Darlings, everybody on your places! The brides are coming!” Mettaton, who had gone off to continue organizing, had returned and was shooing you all back into the two neat rows.

He positioned himself on the front of Alphys role and started directing MK, the ring bearer, and Flowey, the literal flower boy, into what to do.

The music began playing. It sounded like a mix of the traditional organ wedding music with flutes, drums and vocals that sounded a bit… tribal? The mix, though odd, sounded pretty good in the end.

Flowey was actually equipped with a wheeled vase this time and seemed a bit grumpy about having to spread petals all over the aisle. MK followed him, walking slowly and steadily so that the cushion where the rings were set wouldn’t fall off or that he himself wouldn’t trip up. That was the longest stretch of distance you had seen him transverse without tripping and face-planting.

That was when both rows of Bridesmaids and bridesmen began moving. You followed after Papyrus and mimicked what Sans did on the other side. The rows spread diagonally with the Best Man and Man of Honor being closest to the altar where… Frisk was standing?

Ok, why was Frisk the one marrying them? They were just a child, right? Did they have the right authority?

Well… they were an Ambassador… 

Could an Ambassador hold this sort of ceremonies without the proper permits?

You decided not to think too deeply into it. You preferred not to get another headache today. You would put it on hold. Just like you were going to put on hold the other headache inducing issue: the ridiculous attraction you were suddenly feeling for Sans.

_**It’s not that sudden, you know?** _

You booted Rajani’s mental dialogue to a corner of your mind you had no intention of visiting and continued your train of thought like she hadn’t said anything. That seemed to amuse her to no end but you didn’t care.

The fact that you had to sometimes look at him for cues on where to position yourself really wasn’t helping this particular issue. It’s not that the initial shock of seeing him looking so trim hadn’t passed. It had and you definitely weren’t feeling that initial rush of hormones (just hormones! No feelings involved. Nope. None at all), but looking at him you still couldn’t help but blush a bit and that was driving you absolutely nuts. You were not a character from the Sakura Card Captor manga, goddamit!!! (Why did they all have to blush so damn much, anyway?)

So, once you were finally located in your final position for the ceremony, you focused solely on the wedding itself. There was so much to see that it wasn’t too hard to avoid looking at Sans. 

You were displayed in a semi circle turned towards the seats with Frisk a step inside the line. Right in the middle of the semi-circle was a huge pile of wood and there were two smaller ones in each side. 

Toriel and Grillby, who had apparently vacated the kitchen for the sake of the ceremony, magically lit each of the smaller piles but left the larger one untouched. You had no idea that Toriel had fire magic. They both sat down in their respective seats as the music picked up.

Asgore showed up from the tents and, from each side of the tent came one of the brides, heads covered in veils so that they wouldn’t be able to see each other just yet, led by the hand towards Asgore, by two shy looking small monsters with fairy wings.

Asgore took over the charge of leading the ladies, one in each hand, down the aisle. Only when they were finally walking down the aisle without any seats hindering your view, you could finally see their dresses. 

Alphys was dressed in all white in a ball gown sort of style wedding dress. You had thought she would have picked something as fluffy and cutesy as that anime she liked so much, but she had chosen an elegant and classy dress with a sweetheart neckline and a poofy skirt. The fabric was a delicately pleated Chantilly lace and was beaded tastefully with crystals.

Undyne’s choice, on the other hand, made you finally see why the corsage had a bright red ribbon on it. Hers was completely bright red. It was also a sweetheart neckline with lace-up appliques and beading and a court train. The mere boldness of the color fitted Undyne to a ‘T’.

Asgore lead them to stand in front of the small and burning piles of wood each, veils still covering their heads. You found the veils odd looking when compared to their outfits. The colors didn’t seem to combine at all. Undyne’s was yellow and Alphys’ was purple. Both veils seemed to be made of a light material that fluttered in the breeze, yet opaque enough that they couldn’t see anyone and had to be guided. They also seemed to glitter somewhat.

“I bring forth today Undyne of the merfolk lineage to be soulbound to her requested mate.” Asgore said, his voice resounding serious and regal.

Frisk signed something but you couldn’t understand what since they weren’t turned towards you. Fortunately, Flowey, who had been stationed in front of Frisk, voiced for them.

“Identify yourself in regards to the requester.” He said.

He sounded as serious and solemn as Asgore, which was somewhat surprising, coming from the flower.

“I stand here today as her king and former employer, as well as stand in for both her parents and surrogate father.” Was the reply.

Undyne had a surrogate father? It was the first time you had heard of it. You wondered who it was.

Frisk signed again and once more Flowey translated.

“You may uncover your face, Undyne of the merfolk lineage.” She took off her veil and held in in her hands. “Announce to all those gathered here your intentions towards the requested.”

“I intend on sharing my life and soul with my mate and protect her from all arm until the day I dust. I intend on making her happy every day of our lives. I intend on wiping all the tears she sheds and make things right so that she can look back and never regret accepting my request for as long as we are soulbound and beyond.” Undyne announced loud and clear and you could hear a distinct ‘squee’ coming from the white clad reptilian monster at her words.

“I accept your proclamation as worthy. You may wrap your soulveil around this staff.” Frisk produced a wooden staff from the altar and tossed it at her. 

Undyne grabbed it from the air and neatly wrapped and tied the veil to one of the tips. Once that was done she simply stood there in wait for the next step. Asgore spoke once more.

“I also bring forth today Alphys of the drake lineage to be soulbound to her requesting mate.”

“Identify yourself in regards to the requested.” Flowey said again.

“I stand here today as her king and former employer, as well as stand in for both her parents.” So poor Alphys also had no one, not even a surrogate parent.

“You may uncover your face, Alphys of the drake lineage.” Alphys took off her purple veil with a bit of difficulty due to the fact that she was carrying the wedding bouquet. “Announce to all those gathered here if you find your requester’s intentions fitting to your needs.”

“I, Alphys of t-the drake l-lineage, find those intentions fitting to my needs and am more than willing to mirror them right back in our future lives as soulbounded mates.”

“I find this union worthy. You may also wrap your soulveil around this staff.”

Alphys almost dropped the staff in trying to catch him. You didn’t know how she even managed to keep it from falling at all.

“With these staffs in hand you may now light them on fire. The burning of your soulveils will symbolize the lives you left behind as unbound, singular beings. With your aflame staffs, you will then light the pyre on opposing side. This new pyre shall symbolize the life you will now begin together as a soulbound couple.” Flowey continued translating Frisk’s hand signing.

Both staffs were lowered to the respective fires. As soon as the flames touched the veils they quickly changed to the color of the veil as the fire consumed the probably magical fabric and wood.

The both advanced with flames of yellow and purple to stand on each side of the big pile of wood. They finally looked at each other in the eyes.

“I vow to always stand by your side in your times of need. I vow to protect you from everything, even if I have to protect you from yourself. I vow to always love you and cherish you to my final breath. When I finally reach my dusting day I hope that my dust can remain with you forever more.” Undyne said.

“I v-vow to b-believe your ev-very word, even if ot-thers might d-doubt you. I vow t-to stand b-by your side when you n-need me most. I v-vow to always hold you in m-my soul as my m-most beloved until m-my magic s-stops running. When I r-reach my d-dusting day I hope t-that my dust can r-remain with you f-forever more.” Alphys said back.

With that done, both of them lowered the half-burnt staffs to the wood pile. As the fire slowly began eating away the wood and grew closer and closer, both monsters advanced to stand before Frisk and Flowey at the altar. 

The rest of the wedding followed along the lines of wedding that you were used to. Vows were repeated at some point since both ceremonies required them. You were more interested in the fires. They finally met up.

At first both flames seemed to be fighting each other for dominance but, eventually, they combined in a new color between both original colors. It was beautiful to watch.

Eventually the two brides exchanged wedding bands. Undyne then yanked Alphys towards her in a dip and kissed her. It resembled the pose in that drawing she’d made long ago when the kids had asked you to teach them how to draw. The garden was filled with cheering from everyone at the over the top kiss.

That done, Frisk signed the final statements, always translated by Flowey, and the two newly weds began the recession into the tent after signing the paper that legalized them as married in accordance to human law. Mettaton and Papyrus lead each row od Bridesmaids and Bridesmen around each side of the bigger pyre and finally united between the two smaller fires that had fizzled out pretty quickly after the bigger one had been lit. They locked arms and continued the recessional and you took that and Sans offering you his arm, as a sign to do the same. You immediately felt yourself blush.

…

This was going to be a long day…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Miranda's dress (belt is different, though): https://i.pinimg.com/736x/45/29/e5/4529e5b6ae74b0d06958dffa5c1f1737--short-lace-dress-short-prom-dresses.jpg  
> Miranda's hair style: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/95/23/46/9523469f5a8e363d8abd5e4d0897e710--short-hair-wedding-styles-long-hair-styles.jpg  
> Undyne's Dress: https://ss.dresswe.com/images/product/c/5476/10873/10873768_1.jpeg  
> Alphys' Dress: https://www.gorgeautiful.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Plus-Size-Wedding-Dress-Ball-Gown-Julietta-by-Mori-Lee.jpg
> 
> see you next week.


	51. Chapter 50: This Feelin' I'm Feelin' is Somethin' I've Never Known

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of the Wedding arc.  
> The scale duo and Nedd have a devious shipping plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure you will enjoy this one...  
> especially the parts to the end of it  
> ;P

One of the great things about finally being able to sit down at a table, besides the obvious eating and resting your feet, was that you could finally ask about all the monster traditions in regards to wedding ceremonies.

Red was apparently a traditional color for brides to wear in monster tradition and you wholly believed that. You had heard somewhere that in medieval times red was also commonly used for the brides.

Undyne, who was also sat at the bridesmen and bridesmaids table with her now wife, told you she had considered wearing a more typically male outfit since some same gendered couples did that some times, but she decided that, even if she was a lesbian, she was ‘still a woman, goddammit!’ and she sure as hell was proud of being one!

The instruments mixed in with the typical Wedding March were also used in monster weddings, but mostly after the fact and during celebrations. They decided not to include them in the celebration part so as to not let their human guest feel left out. To be honest you were sort of surprised with the number of human guests at the wedding that day. It seemed both Undyne and Alphys were reasonably popular at their workplaces. The city mayor was there too, probably because it was the first monster wedding being held in the surface and by extremely important personalities on the monster movement. Fortunately, no paparazzi were there.

As for the veils, they were no regular fabric. They were actually made from a special thread from spider-type monsters such as Muffet. Those hadn’t been made by Muffet in specific. She dealt mostly in pastries, after all. But the mauve spider lady wasn’t the only spider monster around. 

After crafted, the veils would then be handed to the ones to be married, regardless of gender, who would fill them with their magic essence. The veil would then get the same color as the monsters’ soul core. Undyne’s, whose soul held justice in its core, was yellow and Alphys’, who apparently had perseverance, was purple. Those veils were used to give the individual fires, the ones representing the monsters’ single life, their colors. Having both torches ignite the bigger pyre was to see how well their magic mixed together.

In the color mixing you should get that in between color that you had seen. If the colors didn’t mix at all or one overpowered the other then the couple would be asked to take some time to think if they really wanted to soulbond.

Asgore and Toriel, who were also sitting at the table (why wouldn’t they? They were the king and queen of monsterkind, after all.), revealed that their fires hadn’t mixed as well as Undyne’s and Alphys’, which was of common occurrence. That, according to them, was probably because they weren’t true soulmates, unlike the fish and dinosaur monsters. Alphys and Undyne were a special case. It was so rare for true soulmates (ones whose souls matched perfectly) to exist that some monsters still believed that true soulmates were myths. Toriel and Asgore were still close enough to matching that most of the fire had actually mixed, so they were deemed as marriage approved. 

Apparently, when two types of magic didn’t mix well it meant that the monster involved most likely wouldn’t last long as companions unless something changed. It wasn’t unheard of that two monsters with non-mixing magics that rushed into marriage later found out they had merely been neck deep in the initial stages of a crush where everything was so new and passionate. 

As for when one magic overrode the other in meant that one monster would probably dominate the heck out of the other which, obviously, meant that the relationship wouldn’t be balanced.

That’s not to say that it was a rule that those types of relationships didn’t work at all. There were cases of non-mixing magic couple who actually got along pretty well, rare as they were. If they were capable of reaching a compromise on the things that they disagreed with, then they had what it took to keep a stable relationship with one another. Still, those were extremely rare.

As for the dom-sub magic couples, those were a bit more common that non-mixing ones in terms of compatibility. It was a matter of both being fine with those roles. There were monsters that got a kick out of dominating or being dominated. Heck, there were humans who were the same so who were you to judge.

Technically the monster marriage wasn’t done completely yet. Undyne and Alphys still had to soul bond for the first time. Apparently, soul bonding was fusing both of their souls completely, which would create a connection between the two. That would be done in private, though, since it would involve insane amounts of sex afterwards, apparently.

If what Toriel was explaining to you, much to the embarrassment of the other monsters, was to be believed, the souls would be fused together for quite some time to finish the bond, which was very stimulating. The amount of time varied depending on the amount of magic. Boss monsters were the longest, going up to 48 hours of non-stop sexy time.

…

That was sure a lot of time. You were sure even nymphomaniacs needed to take breaks for peeing, pooing, eating and sleeping.

…

Poor Alphys…

It was also monster tradition to have one of each of the parents of both monster to be married walk them down the aisle. Alphys had no parents so she picked Asgore. Undyne apparently had a turtle monster who took her under his… fin? But he had been feeling sick for that last week so, since she didn’t want to overexert him, Undyne asked Asgore to be her representative too.

The food was eventually served and you saw that the meal had plenty of traditional stuff for thanksgiving in it, but it also had many other things that were more traditional to monster weddings. Undyne and Alphys had fairly larger servings than anyone else, probably for the sake of having energy for later. They also inserted their magic in each other’s food for the sake of making the bonding easier. If their soul had already digested a significant amount of the other’s magic it only made sense that going soul to soul and absorbing the magic directly would become easier too.

The bouquet wasn’t monster tradition, hence why Alphys was the only one carrying one.

With your curiosity satisfied, you turned towards socializing with the other monsters at the table. For all the bad feelings you and Raj had gotten from the disformed monsters, they seemed nice enough, if a bit weird. Even their ‘goopiness’ wasn’t as slimy as you had first thought just from seeing them. It was more like kneaded dough that had received just a bit too much milk.

The only thing that was truly slimy was the ‘slobber’ that the dog like one produced. You think their name is Endogeny or something of the sort. Your dogs loved the dog-like monster immediately.

There seemed to be a secret story between the deformed monsters and Alphys but no one forwarded you that information. You also found out there was one more monster from the deformed group that didn’t show up for some reason. You didn’t ask.

As the meal progressed, Asgore, Papyrus and Mettaton made speeches regarding the brides. Meanwhile, you were still trying to remain social in an effort of distraction yourself from the fact that you were sitting right next to Sans.

You had pretty much calmed down from your previous meltdown, but that didn’t change the fact that you still felt butterflies in your stomach just by rubbing elbows with him. Thankfully it wasn’t noticeable. Good thing you had-

_**-a heck of a poker face. Yeah, I got it.** _

…You may have annoyed Rajani a bit too much with your ‘neurosis’…

Be that as it may, you still exchanged a few casual puns with Sans, which lead to a very annoyed Papyrus and everything went as normal as ever, so you were quite satisfied.

Suddenly, Mettaton, who was apparently serving as Master of Ceremonies for the wedding, announced that it was time for the newlyweds’ first dance. At the fancy DJ tables, there was the same ghost you had seen before at the Halloween party. Or at least… he seemed the same one? Were you being racist if you thought all ghosts looked the same? But then again it would be too much of a coincidence that both ghosts you had seen were different people and both just happened to be DJs.

The two of them danced to yet another Mew Mew Kissy Cutie song. Well… it was more like Undyne danced to the song and Alphys was swept along but still managing to look… you wouldn’t say graceful… it’s more like less rumpled than usual. Still, they were dancing with all of their heart so, even if there were parts of the dance that would have looked somewhat comical in any other situation, the whole thing was pretty emotional.

Then came the dreaded dance for the whole bridal party. That meant that you would have to dance with Sans since the shipper brides had paired you off with him. Rajani teased you about it in your head, telling you to ‘cop a feel’ while you were at it, as she led Mrs. Snowdrake to the dance floor.

Reluctantly, you stood up and walked to the center, instinctively looking for a place where you wouldn’t be as visible to the guests. Sans followed you there. Then…

…

There was a moment of awkwardness as you both pondered how to hold each other but you finally settled on the exact same one you had used the last time you had danced together. As if the gods were mocking you, that same some began playing once again and you glared at the speakers. Unfortunately, you couldn’t seem to remain mad at the song, as evidenced by you beginning to sing along.

Sans seemed so transfixed by your singing that he didn’t even make any puns. Once you noticed the way he was looking at you, you blushed and asked. “What?!”

“nothing. just enjoying your voice.” Was the response, which made you turn even redder.

“W-well, at least sing along with me or something?”

“w-what? you kiddin’ me, right? why would you want to ruin the song with my voice?”

“Come on! I’m sure you can’t be that bad. Sing for me?” You asked.

“no”

“Pleeeeeeaaaaaaase?” You tried a hand at making puppy eyes.

“n-no.” he said flustering and you smiled wider, sense imminent victory.

“Pwetty pwease?”

“oh, look at that, the song is over! i guess that i can’t sing to you this time!”

Indeed, the song’s last chords resonated in the gigantic tent. You also heard Mettaton announcing that the other people could join in on the dancing.

“Then I guess I’ll just have to keep you dancing with me until you sing.” You commented, not letting go of him. 

That seemed to fluster him even more. 

“Come on, let me hear that sexy voice of yours!” you said just to fluster him even more. It worked.

“s-sexy!?”

“Indeed.”

You continued to fluster him some more, still dancing with him in the same manner even if the songs were picking up a faster beat. Eventually you had pity on him and, even though he hadn’t sung to you -much to your disappointment-, you let him off the hook. At least he was sporting some bright blue cheeks when you were done with him.

…

Not that you were much better.

Halfway through he had decided that the best way to retaliate was to compliment the buhjeezuz out of you, which you couldn’t deal with very well. You, obviously weren’t one for giving up and, by the end, you were sure that if the scale shipping duo had listened to it, Alphys would have released the biggest fangirl shrill in the history of fangirling.

Your heart rate wasn’t doing very well after all of that. You decided to sit at the table. Unfortunately, Sans had the same idea. Fortunately, Nedd seemed to want to talk to you instead of dancing. Even better he didn’t seem interested in shipping you two… for now.

Instead you talked about thanksgiving. Usually, you and Nedd were the only ones who didn’t go home for thanksgiving. You never bothered to ask why he didn’t but, so long as he didn’t ask you right back, you were fine. You talked about how great it was that the monsters at the wedding could spend this holiday celebrating, not only the typical gratefulness, but also the love between two soulmates who were starting their life together.

After the guests had worn themselves out dancing somewhere around mid afternoon, Nedd had to return to his table because Mettaton announced the cake cutting.

You had to laugh when, with a mighty and powerful ‘NGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!’ Undyne managed to not only cut the cake, but also the plate and even the table itself.

…

You were no longer laughing when Mettaton announced the bouquet toss and Undyne insisted that all the bridesmaids and bridesmen should stand there. She even allowed other guests to join in, but insisted for all bridesmaids and bridesmen to be there with no exception. 

You should have expected for something to not be ok when you noticed that Undyne would be doing the tossing instead of Alphys, despite the bouquet belonging to the drake monster. That and also the fact that Nedd joined in on the bouquet toss as well.

He gathered you and Sans to ask you about soul stuff and, since neither of you was too invested in getting the bouquet, you were more than happy to talk to him. Initially you hadn’t understood why he wanted you there as well, but when asked he told you that he was interested on the whole multiple personality deal and how that affected the soul as well and wanted you close by to compare notes after talking to Sans. It seemed legit so you stood around, listening in on them talking. It was mostly about things you already knew but you listened anyway.

When the subject of faded souls was broached, Nedd’s interest in you -after the reveal that both sides of your souls seemed faded- skyrocketed.

You were so distracted talking to both of them you didn’t notice the bouquet until it slammed into your face so hard that you were literally knocked to the ground. Who would have thought flowers that weren’t Flowey could hurt you so much? But then again, anything was a weapon in Undyne’s hands. Go figure!

“Hei, look who’s going to get married next! And here we thought you weren’t interested!” Undyne bellowed.

“You did that on purpose, you betta fish from hell!” You shouted back recovering a bit from the sudden onslaught.

“Prove it!” She demanded.

“Sure. As soon as I stop seeing stars that aren’t the sun during the daylight hours.”

“Well? What are you waiting for Sans?” Nedd asked from behind the skeleton from your perspective, which was odd, hadn’t Nedd been standing near you too? “Help her up.”

“oh. ok.”

Sans reached down for you and you grabbed his hand…

…and felt something was off right away, starting by sudden tingling, that you had come to associate with magic, that seemed to permeate all of you. The fact that Sans seemed to cringe too, seemingly feeling the same thing, didn’t bode well. He still helped you up, though.

“Thanks, Sans.”

“you’re welcome.”

You took one look at the two brides and didn’t like the way they are looking at you. Then again, you had caught the bouquet. Right in the face, but you had caught it all the same. And you were willing to bet that Undyne would insist there was no way for you to back out of it.

“I’m going to the table and eat some more cake.” You announced the guys who were back to talking about soul stuff. You were really craving some sugary comfort right now.

“oh? yeah sure.” Sans said absentmindedly.

“Go right ahead. I’ll pester you for information later.” Nedd said but there was a suspicions tinge to his voice… 

And then you remembered how thick as thieves he and the scale duo had been about their shipping of you and Sans and decided he was thinking of ways to tease you about having caught the bouquet.

Ignoring the cheeky smirk on Nedd’s face, you started walking back to the table having nothing on your mind other than the deliciousness that was the wedding cake. You felt somewhat heavy and that your legs weren’t carrying you as well as usual, but that was probably because of all the dancing. You were so focused on food that, when you heard someone yelp a bit at a reasonably near distance, you didn’t even pay attention. It was only when you heard Sans’ voice say ‘stoooop’ in a pleading manner that you finally looked back and saw him on the floor three feet away from you, looking like someone had dragged him. Outraged at that, you looked around to see who had done it, only to notice everyone’s gazes were locked on you two. You… decided to ignore the others, you were used to be looked at like you were weird -which, admittedly, you were-.

“Are you ok, Sans?” You asked, offering him a hand.

“y-yeah. i think so…”

“What happened?” 

“no idea. it was as if i got yanked all of a sudden.” He said looking a bit shaken and confused by the whole experience.

“Are you sure you are ok?” You asked, feeling worried by his confused expression.

You were mostly worried because you had never seen Sans this confused before. Even when he didn’t know something fully he still had some theories and you could tell that what had happened was so sudden and unexpected that he was very much rattled. 

“yeah, i’m sure. thanks for worrying. i'm gonna go finish my conversation with nedd, now. i shouldn’t let this conversation _drag_ on for too long, after all. ” He said with a chuckle but you could tell he was still feeling weirded out by what happened but was trying to act like it was no big deal.

“If you say so…” You replied back and watched as he turned around and started walking towards Nedd… only to suddenly become unable to actually pull himself forward with his legs? Stranger still, you felt some sort of pull towards where he was going, though definitely not strong enough to drag you.

You were confused at first, especially since you had decided to put aside any discomfort you were feeling in favor of worrying about Sans. It wasn’t until you took a step forward to go check with him what was going on and he nearly face-planted because he managed to suddenly advance the same distance, that you put two and two together.

You tested your theory by giving a few steps away and to the sides and seeing how his body reacted. At some point, he looked back at you and noticed what you were doing. You saw the moment he realized that he seemed to be bound to you in some way. It was the same moment you stopped moving.

“How…?” You asked him, unable to complete the sentence with how gob-smackedly shocked you were with all of this.

He seemed like he was about to shrug and then stood stock still, looking at his hand, then at you and finally, after a pondering frown, at the bouquet you were still carrying around. You were absolutely confused since your thoughts were lagging a bit behind and, when you tried to think what those three elements had in common, you remembered the magical tingling you’d felt when Sans helped you up. That had been just after the bouquet had smashed into you…

You both turned as a united front towards the two newlyweds who had been enjoying the show in the sidelines, trying to keep each other from laughing so as not to give themselves away. They realized it was already too late for that so they opted for laughing out loud like a couple of hyenas. Suffice to say you were not amused and neither was Sans.

“What did you do?” You asked firmly, glaring in their direction.

They looked at you and the kept laughing. Well… Undyne kept laughing. Alphys seemed to realize that you were not in a mood to be trifled with.

“What. Did. You. DO?” You repeated, making sure to punctuate each and every word.

Undyne finally sobered up and replied to you since, Alphys was really starting to feel intimidated by your glare.

“We put some purple magic on the bouquet so that whoever touched the person who caught it in the toss first couldn’t more than three feet away from them.

“…purple magic?” you asked, confused.

“it’s a kind of magic that is used to bind things, both physically as well as metaphysically.” Sans said beside you, making you jump a bit.

You hadn’t even realized he had gotten that near you until he had spoken. You had wanted to remain focused on the task of reprimanding Undyne, but curiosity won out.

“How so?”

“physically, purple magic restricts your movements to a certain degree. kind of like the current situation. we can move, we just have restrictions on how we can do so, in this case being remaining within three feet of each other.” He explained.

“And the other way?

“it depends on the user, but one of the ways of doing that could be… binding the strength of your attack to the opponent’s lv or exp. The higher the kill count, the stronger the attack.”

“Ok, I was a bit upset that my favorite color was associated with the magical form of non-consensual bondage but you just made my color cool again”

That wording had the effect of flustering the handsome skeleton a bit before you went back to the point.

“Now, you’ve had your fun. Release us from this magic.” You told Undyne as calmly as you could.

“Sorry, punk. Couldn’t even if I wanted to. That particular spell will last for 24 hours, no more and no less.”

She was joking… right? She had to be! There was no way she was being serious right now!

“Nice joke. Now for real, get this off of us.” You said.

“I wasn’t joking, punk.”

You last bit of forced calm snapped off.

“You are telling me that me and Sans will have to spend the next 24 hours with no privacy, not even in the bathroom, to do the most basic of needs! You do know that we have work tomorrow, don’t you? You are aware that some of our work hours overlap, aren’t you?”

“I… hadn’t thought of that.” She admitted.

“Is there really no other way for us to break this spell? I doubt Greg will be very pleased with me having Sans around and letting him know spoilers for our shows and I doubt the McDonald’s managers and owner will allow me to sit around like no big deal.” You asked Alphys, the most likely master mind of the whole event.

“N-no.”

“Really? No even the typical and messed up scenario where we need to kiss for the bindings to be gone or something?” At your side Sans flushed at the implications but you payed him no mind.

“OMG! How come we hadn’t thought of that one!” Alphys lost her stutter completely, now that she was focused on her passionate shipping miscalculation.

You were just glad she hadn’t thought of that. At the same time, you couldn’t help but regretting her having foregone such a simplistic way to getting you two to break the spell. It’s not like you minded kissing him if that meant you could go free. He was cute and looked quite handsome today. 

Not that you were looking to kiss him or anything… It’s just that such a typical anime-like way out would have been the perfect thing to add to this spell. 

…Though you admit you wouldn’t really mind kissing him. You can’t help but wonder how that would feel like. Would it be just a quick meet of lips to teeth or would it be a French-kiss? He definitely had the equipment for it. And if it was the later would he be into it as much as you woul-…

WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!!??!?

Anyway, this was a moot point since they hadn’t thought of including that way out!

“You know… It might actually work. Why don’t you two give it a try anyway?” Nedd suggested with a smug smile full of mischief.

You groaned at him angrily before turning to the shipper girls.

“How did you two even know Sans would be the first person to touch me after the toss? It’s not like you have the power to see the future or someth-” Your eyes widened when the realization hit you and you looked back on Nedd. “YOU WERE IN ON IT, WEREN’T YOU?!!!”

“Guilty as charged.” Was his reply.

“you guys are all so dead, right now.” Sans said from beside you, though he was still blue from your kiss comment.

“What are you going to do about it, punk?” Undyne taunted.

Before anyone could do or say anything you made a motion to stop all movement.

“Rajani? You know what to do!” You said and, Rajani, who had been belly rolling on the floor until then, grabbed your phone, having full knowledge on your intentions.

With a few clicks, she finally got a song to play. Sans shared a look with you as you both smirked evilly.

“Sans, do you wanna give them a bad time?” You asked as Megalovania played from your phone.

“you bet.” 

You both proceeded to harass the three of them with pranks for the duration of the party. Once Papyrus learned of what they had done he approved of that revenge half-heartedly. He would have preferred adding some puzzles to the equation too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The initial idea of the bouquet toss was RTNightmare's. I merely added the purple magic twist to it ;P  
> next few chapters well center around the lack of privacy and basically Miranda experiencing a day in the life of Sans.


	52. Chapter 51: Sitting on the Toilet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part one on Living With a Skeleton Tied to You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title brought to you by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqgFBQJycYU  
> It seemed fitting since it'll be one of the biggest issues to face XP
> 
> Also, have you noticed this fanfic had it's 1st anniversary last wednesday!? O.O wow. It's been a whole year... wow. In this year I wrote 51 chapters, got 325 kudos in this fic, 33 bookmarks, 4643 hits and 70 subscriptions. But these are nothing but numbers. What matters most is that I met interesting people in the comment section, met a great friend (lookin' at you RTNightmare), and I can honestly say that this fic has helped me deal with a great loss over time. It helped writing what happened in between the fiction. It helped that, though I know she's gone, my friend is still very much present in all the things I do, especially writing this fic dedicated to her. i'm no longer the hetred filled person I used to be. Heck, I probably would have killed her ex and that horrid aberration of a friend had I seen them once again. Thank god I haven't right ;P Shouldn't have to waste my life for that sort of scum. I can still be a bit of a bitch but I can live with that XP  
> Anyway. Thank you for sticking around with me for so long, regardless from reading this the very same week I post it or being someone that found this fic much later. To the first ones: your incentives made it easier for me to go on. I'm not gonna lie. My life isn't the easiest for someone like me, whose endurance to verbal attacks isn't the best. but you managed to give me one more reason to hold on. It might not be much for someone looking in on me, compared to all the other (though few) reasons I have to keep holding on, but every single one of those reason helps me greatly. So thank you.  
> I'm just sorry that this is the chapter that I get to say all these things. I mean, look at that title. XD Just a few more and I would have an easter egg for a future fic mid text that would have been the perfect present. Instead you get faced with bathroom awkwardness and _shitty_ humor. :P
> 
> Anyway, enjoy. ^w^

After deciding to prank the heck out your three victims, the party had gone along well. You had so much fun trying to come up with ideas to annoy them with Sans that you almost forgot about your raging butterflies in your stomach.

And then the party ended and you were suddenly acutely aware of them ramming from side to side inside you once again. Fortunately, you had managed to find a way to both take revenge on Nedd and to deal with your situation with Sans. Nedd would have to explain to Greg exactly why you couldn’t make it there for work and would have to work your share as well.

That didn’t solve the McDonald’s situation, though. Or the one about the bathroom breaks either. And sleeping…

True, you had fallen asleep with Sans before… but that was before you were so acutely aware of him like you were right now. And also: it was never purposeful. So, the mere idea of intentionally going to sleep with him made you jittery to say the least. You wouldn’t let yourself overreact, though. That would be plain childish and you hadn’t been a child for several years.

For now, the most pressing issue was getting changed into more comfortable clothes and it was an issue for you both because neither of you wanted to remain in your current clothing. Neither of you had broached the subject but you were sure he was thinking the same because of how much he was fiddling with his tie. If he fiddled any harder you would think he was an old-time criminal trying to get rid of a noose before he got hanged. Funny, you always heard that was how most men viewed marriage… One could say Sans wasn’t being very _committed_ to his fancy clothing.

…

God, you really needed to get a hold of yourself. Just because you were friends with (and attracted to) Sans, it didn’t mean you had to become him.

…

God, you really wanted to get out of those heels and that dress.

Frisk suddenly approached you two, already back in their typical blue and magenta sweater. If there was someone who felt as uncomfortable in fancy clothing as much as you two it was them.

“How come you are still in those?” They signed, pointing then to your clothes with a questioning frown.

“erm…” “You see…” You and Sans started off at the same time.

You eyed each other trying to decide who would have to explain the issue to the kid. Sans shrugged, giving you the go ahead.

“Well… erm… that would imply we get naked in front of each other…” You said, blushing just by picturing it.

Yet, still you couldn’t help but be curious about what Sans looked like under all his clothes. Part of it was pure innocent curiosity. …part of it wasn’t… Part of it really wanted to know Sans in the same sense of the bible’s definition of 'knowing' someone.

_**Shame on you.**_ Rajani said mentally. 

She’d been moody ever since you had exchanged her freedom from Mettaton for yours. You had been lucky she even decided on helping you calm down from your realization. Then again, she could never remain constantly moody with you. So long as she had time to process her feelings with no outside interference (meaning yours), she would be fine. Right now, she was in your room playing Puzzlestuck on your laptop but she still kept tabs on you. She knew you were feeling highly uncomfortable with all that had happened and was ready to take over you if she deemed necessary. For now, she was mostly feeling amused at your discomfort, though.

You decided to ignore her remark.

“Can’t you just change your clothes next to the door with Sans on the other side?” Frisk asked.

“… I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.” You said as Rajani burst laughing.

_**Took you long enough!** _

_You knew!?_

_**Yup.** _

_Why didn’t you say anything?_

_**Because it was funnier this way.** _

_..._

“Well, I guess I’m gonna go up and do that.” You said, blushing in shame. “Let’s go, Sans?”

Technically you could just stand up and walk. Being much lighter than you, he couldn’t really help but be dragged along. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t do the same to you because of that very same thing. Still, it was much more considerate to ask him before dragging him around.

“sure.” Sans said somewhat eagerly. 

He must really have had enough of being in a suit. Too bad that you didn’t feel the same in regards to his outfit. You were beginning to feel it in regards to your dress, though. You requested to go first and he obliged.

You both still had to walk into your room for a bit so that you could get your pajamas closer to the door. Sans then walked out and you closed the door. It was odd, changing your clothes knowing that he was just on the other side of the door. It wasn’t as embarrassing as when Rajani undressed you in Sans’ room and had you dress his clothes for the sake of masking your scent, thankfully.

Next was your turn to follow him to his room. You noted that his room was a bit messier than usual. It looked as if someone had exploded a whole wardrobe of fancy clothing in there. By the amount of pink glitter, you suspected that Mettaton had paid a visit to Sans as well.

_**Oh, he did. Right after you ran away and he rained down misery on me. Seeing the Cueball getting harassed was almost worth the torture… almost! It was the only reason I even stuck around him after he was done with me.**_ Rajani commented. _**Most of these clothes aren’t even Sans’. Mettaton brought them with him to see one that would match with you. He hadn’t expected you to already have a nice enough dress so the match wasn’t perfect but both outfits were navy blue at least, even if yours was complimented by black and golden accessories and Sans’ had cyan blue eccents.**_

You were about to reply to Raj when you felt Sans ushering you out of his room, which broke your train of thought. You walked out of the door and leaned against the wall as you waited from Sans to come out. 

_Don’t tell me that Metts is also a part of the shipper club? I thought better of him._

_**‘Darlin’, Alphys made his body. What were you expecting? Of course he would pay her back in any way he could!!! …I’m being sarcastic in the last statement, by the way. He would actually do it for his own amusement, not for Alphys’ sake. I know you sometimes confuse it for sincerity.** _

_Hah hah! Verrrry funny. NOT! That was ONE time!_

You continued your bullshit talk with Rajani while you waited. You got so distracted with your verbal sparring that you hadn’t even noticed that Sans had come out of his room. To be honest, Rajani had also been distracted enough that she lost a few times in her Puzzlestuck matches so you weren’t the only absentminded one.

“so… how are we going to do this?” Sans asked after he made sure he had your full attention.

And he had all your attention.

All of it!

…

Why were you still feeling mutated raging butterflies in your stomach? He was no longer dressed in his fancy suit!

_**I told you. You were already attracted before! You just hadn’t acknowledged it until you were faced with the cold hard facts! Or should I say ‘hot hard facts’ instead.**_ She even mentally winked. She then made a face of disgust. _**NO! Look at what your crush made me do!**_

_C-crush!?_

_**… …in a matter of speaking, you know! Since when do you think too deeply into anything I say?** _

_Erm… ok…_

“No idea.” You finally reply to Sans.

He probably thought your long pause was due to you pondering on the options and you preferred to let him keep thinking that. But to be fair you had already tried to think of the whole bathroom issue before. That was your most worrisome subject right now. As awkward as purposefully sleeping together might be, fact still stood that you had done it accidentally several times before so it wasn’t as much of an issue. Really, it was only a matter of which of your beds would you two sleep in and keeping your enraged stomach-dwelling butterflies in check. Bathroom time, however…

“I guess we can brush our teeth at the same time. There might just be one sink there but neither of us is fat enough so as the occupy the whole thing by ourselves.” You said. “I suppose I could do without a shower today too. The issue is: how are we gonna use the toilet?”

The toilets on each of the bathrooms were too far away from the doors for one of you to simply sit outside. You would both have to be there at the same time and with no buffer between.

…

For a momment you questioned if Sans even used a toilet or if it was an issue for you to deal with alone. Well, you were sure to find out one way or another… unless he could hold it for a very long time? 

After a long pause in which both of you pondered, Sans merely shrugged.

“i guess we just have to avoid looking at each other while doing our thing.” Was his brilliant conclusion.

“There has to be a better way!” You said. You certainly weren’t looking forward to having him standing there while you did some fowl smelling things in his vicinity.

“there isn’t but feel free to keep thinking something up.”

Thank god you didn’t feel the need to go just yet. You could hold it for some time to come. You did take a bathroom break before the cutting of the cake, after all. 

You decided to go down since it wasn’t much longer until dinner time as you pondered on the issue. Then Sans started shooting pun after pun to get you to lighten up for a bit and, when you finally cracked up, he beamed you a smile so big you could have sworn his skull almost cracked in half. Why did he have to be so adorable?!

_**That thought right there is why I said you already had a latent attraction towards the Cueball.**_ Rajani commented offhandedly and you proceeded to swiftly shut her down, though…

You grudgingly admit she might have had a point. All the same, you aren’t ready to admit it to her. As you reached the ground floor you look at the backyard through the window. Undyne, Papyrus and Asgore were cleaning up what was left of the party. The tent would stay there, though. They would pack it up with the rental company when they came back to collect it. Papyrus and Undyne had already effortlessly stacked up the tables and chairs a long time ago, so all that there was left was sweeping all the debris from Asgore’s prized lawn. You had tried to help and, grudgingly, so had Sans but having to remain within three feet of each other at all times proved to be very troublesome in such a large area to cover. It was the first, and probably only, time that Papyrus would condone for Sans to relax and take a nap or something. Which had led to Frisk finding you on the couch moments before.

Speaking of that…

You sat down on the couch by Sans side again and searched the TV for something to watch that you both liked. It was so much better to feel cozy on the couch in your pajamas while watching the TV. Frisk was nowhere to be seen, though. They were probably playing with MK and Flowey some place else.You opted for watching some reruns of Mythbusters and proceeded to do so until Toriel called you all for dinner. 

Dinner went as normally as any other day. The bindings between you and Sans weren’t as noticeable in such a cozy and tight environment. You could almost pretend that you weren’t tethered down to him by some invisible -and supposedly purple- magic. That night Alphys and Undyne would move to their new place for their soulbonding session right after dinner. MK would be having slumber parties with Frisk and Flowey for the duration of the bonding.

The feast that Toriel presented was even more Thanksgiving food. You kept forgetting it was Thanksgiving Day but, to be honest, it wasn’t a holiday you celebrated as a Portuguese woman that had no such tradition, as well as the lonely girl living alone in the world with nothing to be thankful for until these past few months. This would be the very first time you would have a Thanksgiving in which you had something to feel thankful for. The mere oddness of it should have kept you from forgetting but, with all the wedding preparations it had sort of taken a background role. It shamed you a bit that you were constantly forgetting what holiday it was but it couldn’t be helped. 

Besides, even if you kept forgetting it now, it would certainly go down as one of the most memorable days in your life. You may be constantly forgetting what holiday it was, but you weren’t going to forget the wedding any time soon, that’s for sure. Each of you had a chance to state what you were thankful for that year. You weren’t sure that was traditional but, if it wasn’t, then you would consider it traditional to this family alone. You had so many things to be thankful for… The others had them too. By the end of it you all had tears in your eyes.

Once you were done eating, Undyne literally grabbed Alphys from her seat, bid goodbye to everyone, kissed MK’s head and dashed off before anyone even got to react to her telling them goodbye. You stood up to help Toriel with the dishes… only to have Sans almost fall from his chair when you got too far away.

Gosh, this was annoying! Good thing you were still close enough to catch him just before he hit the ground. You weren’t quite sure how you did it, considering you weren’t exactly the most athletic of people, now that you didn’t have to keep your guard up all of the time. You kind of jumped towards him and slid in the floor like the baseball player trying to reach base before the opposing team’s player can touch it with the ball.

The result was Sans using you as a pillow. 

…

To be more precise…

The result…

Was Sans using your boobs as a pillow as he landed face first on them. It was a scene completely out of an Anime. In fact, you were pretty sure there were two scenes very similar to this on Chrno Crusade with both of the main characters getting sick at different times and both fainting towards another character’s big boobs.

This being said, as soon as you realized the position you two were in, that scenario was the last thing on your mind. Instead one could say that Sans broke you as you froze completely while releasing a long ‘eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek’ sound. You sounded like a tea kettle when the water was ready. 

Likewise, it seemed your boobs broke Sans right back as he also froze up, having his whole skull turned blue. Talk about a blue screen of death!

You both finally broke the silent by saying, at the exact same time, a strangled ‘help’. The position was somewhat precarious and, with one wrong move, Sans would fall to the hard floor instead. The others laughed at the situation for a moment before Papyrus took pity on both of you and helped Sans up on his chair and away from your squishy bosom. 

You stood up from the floor, face as red as his was blue.

“S-sorry. I forgot for a moment that you were tied down to me.” You said.

“i-it’s ok…” He replied back.

“Do you mind moving so that I can help Toriel?” You asked.

“Oh, there is no need. I can take care of the dishes by myself, my child.” Toriel replies instantly.

“But you already had so many things to do today. Let me at least help you out with something. I insist.” It would also help distract you from the very painfully obvious fact that you were still tied down to Sans.

“Well, if you insist.” Toriel commented with a knowing smile that made you a bit uncomfortable.

As you were helping Toriel with the kitchen, Sans had no other choice but to walk after you until Frisk took pity in him and brought one of those office chairs with wheels for him to sit at. It was a hilarious scene to say the least, as Sans was wheeled all over the place after you. It didn’t become any easier to remain upright and productive when he started spouting off pun after pun that was closer and closer to making you collapse in giggles. Toriel wasn’t doing much better either.

“i _wheel_ -y am tired of being pulled into all of these shenanigans too, you know?” He said at some point after Rajani, who stuck around the kitchen even though she didn’t eat, commented that she was sick and tired of all the puns he was spewing.

= **Really!? Can’t you just stop all this madness!? Why make a shitty situation even worse?** =

“this is just how I _roll_. besides, it’s not making the situation worse if brownie and tori are laughing. you are the only one with a problem. ”

= **Would it kill you to ease up on the puns for just a bit?** = Rajani retorted, clearly agitated for some reason.

You didn’t understand Rajani’s sudden sensitivity to everything, especially when it came to Sans. What could have possibly made Rajani feel so on edge? Even you were sensing some backlash, though it was obvious it wasn’t intentional on her part.

Sensing your train of thought, Rajani sighed deeply.

= **I’m off to my charge station and then I’m going to try to sleep. Good night.** = She said, leaving the kitchen.

You hadn’t meant to scare her off with your thoughts.

_**It’s ok. I just need to have some time to myself for thinking. Sorry if I’m a bit… on edge today.** _

_No, it’s ok. I just wished I could understand and help you somehow._

_**I’m just moody. It’s no big deal.** _

_Ok…_

You were still worried and you knew that she sensed it but remained silent to your musings this time.

“Well, it seems our work here is done!” Toriel said after placing the last champagne glasses on the highest shelf on the cupboard. “Thank you for your help, my child. It certainly freed me up from the kitchen much sooner.”

“You’re welcome!” You said, smiling. You always felt better after helping people. And though you didn’t do it for the recognition, it certainly felt just as good to be thanked after you were done.  
You followed Sans to continue Harry Potter’s saga’s reading to Papyrus and found him surrounded by the three kids, looking primed for a major slumber party in his bedroom and looking forwards to more Harry Potter. Right now, you were reading the seventh book, just a few chapters in. Not many, mind you. There was only so much reading one could do at night before the children and tall skeleton fell asleep. You didn’t always read to all of them all of the time. Toriel was mostly in charge of reading to the kids and you and Sans to Papyrus unless they decided to do a slumber party. Still, even with different readers, they had managed to stay pretty close in terms of the plot. Maybe a page or two of difference.  
You were expecting a fast reading that night, just like all others before.   
Frisk was determined on getting to the end of the book tomorrow night, though. They wanted to reach the end with MK and that wouldn’t happen if he was at his new place with the scale duo. That meant rushing to the end. You and Sans ended up reading until the escape from the Gringotts bank on dragon’s back before the kids and Papyrus succumbed to their sleep at half past one in the morning.

With a sigh and a sore throat, you tucked the kids in as Sans tucked his brother.

“I need a glass of water.” You told your reading partner.

“same here.”

You got down to the kitchen once more with the purpose of drinking some fresh water that was kept in the fridge. You knew that cold water wasn’t good for your voice but you couldn’t drink it at room temperature, only cold or in a warm tea. Sans wasn’t complaining about your peculiarities, though. As you descended you held hands. It had started somewhere around story time as a way to keep close and avoid dragging one another by mistake. It had become so natural you hadn’t even realized you were still holding them until you reached for the fridge and needed both hands.

You blushed at finally become aware of your sudden bought of clingy-ness and Sans followed soon after. You guessed that being tired after such a big day might be part of the reason you had forgotten. The other part might be due to how comfortable around the skeleton you had become.

There was no denying how comfortable you were around him. He actually managed to make you laugh and had kept you company on the several times he found you up late at night. He might not have known then the extent of your nightmares but he still stayed, probably sensing something was wrong or needing you as much as you needed him there to reassure you it had just been a nightmare. 

You wondered what his nightmares were about. Unfortunately, you knew he wouldn’t tell you. Part was because he probably didn’t trust you enough and you didn’t blame him. You knew each other for what? Two months? Going on three counting the conference and the attempted rape? Had you not been pressured at such a moment of weakness you wouldn’t have told anything to anyone, let alone him. Had Toriel followed Sans’ advice back then and waited for you to recover you would have shut yourself in and avoided them until they dropped the issue. And it hadn’t been just a matter of trust either. 

You trusted them all with your life but only to a certain degree. Putting them in danger with the knowledge of what had happened to you was beyond that point. You didn’t regret telling them for the most part. They had helped you. You couldn’t deny how heavy the burden of your family’s lives had been on your shoulders and, by telling them, you had allowed them to share the weight with you and lighten your load. You weren’t stupid enough to deny it and go on pretending that you were the same as before. You weren’t the same as before and even your soul agreed.

You regretted putting them in harm’s way when it came to the antimatter bomb, however. Sure, Undyne might shrug off the organization by labeling them cowards who couldn’t even come at you directly and up front, claiming they wouldn’t have any way to come after you on the compound without someone there to help you.

Sure, it might be hard, if not impossible, for them to plant a bomb or a few snipers there without anyone noticing, but that wasn’t the only route to killing or kidnapping you. 

Anyway, you were diverging from your initial point.

It wasn’t just the fact that he knew you for too little a time to trust you with his nightmares, though that might be a small part of the issue. Sans hadn’t told even Papyrus, the one person he absolutely trusted above all. Another part of the issue might be him not knowing or being able to handle putting it into words. That had certainly been an issue for him when it came to their mother, after all. But you still suspected it was much more serious than that. Given his protective nature, probably something that involved Papyrus too?

Anyway, it wasn’t any of your business. All that mattered was that, having someone close to you who understood? It made you trust him and feel comfortable around him. Even in your weakest moment you had trusted him to see your soul. True, you hadn’t been in your right mind. Had you been more aware you wouldn’t have asked him to stay, physical comfort or not. To this day you weren’t sure what had possessed you to ask that of him, especially since you suspected how important souls were to monsters. 

That was why you were sure of your trust in him.

In such a short amount of time he had gone from someone you didn’t care in the least about, to your best friend. 

…

That scared you.

You chose not to think about it anymore. It was best to ignore it all. Fake it until you break it, you guess.

You finished your glass of water first and watched as Sans kept on sipping from his without opening his mouth. Once he was done you put both glasses in the sink and turned to him hesitatingly.

“Have you thought how to address the bathroom issue?” You asked again.

“…no.” He admitted.

“I guess we’re both going in, then? Gosh, this is so embarrassing…”

“likewise.”

“Let’s… j-just get this over with. Y-yes?”

“s-sure.”

You both walked back up the stairs and entered the bathroom. You stood before the toilet mulling in your thoughts.

“Who goes first?” You asked.

“ladies first?” Sans suggests, not at all convincingly.

You sigh in resignation and feeling tension crawling up on you.

“Turn around. No peeking! And… ignore all smells and noises that aren’t me talking to you, ok?” You demand.

Regardless of how much you trusted him, somethings should not be shared with people who were just friends. You doing the number two with a bit of number one was one of them.

After five minutes of you sitting bare assed on the toilet without anything happening you were beginning to feel frustrated by your shy bladder/rectum, yet giving it all the reason in the world. You weren’t looking forward to sharing all your human grossness with him, after all. Especially now that you actually were attracted to him.

Sans sighed.

“this is truly a _shitty_ situation. ” He said all of a sudden, his pun immediately registering in your mind due to how focused you were on that particular subject.

You snorted.

“Sans! Really!?”

“what!?” He continued, undaunted. “it’s true, isn’t it? don’t get _pissed_ off at me for stating the facts! ”

“Sans. This is not the best time.”

“what? why not? I know you love my puns _fart_ sure. ”

“Sans!” You bellowed trying to remain stern yet barely repressing the giggling. “This is really not the best time.”

“well that just means you are _full of shit_. this is the perfect time and you know it. What better for a _crappy shit_ -uation than some toilet humor.”

And you began to literally pissing yourself laughing with how hard you laughed at that one. You tried to repress it again, red in shame but Sans took no breaks in his punning.

“see? now you just proved me right. _urine_ there, barely holding back your laughter, as I _dump_ some more puns on you. ”

The pee started to come out more freely as Sans kept up with his shitty puns. By the end of it you were all peed out and all there was left was the number two. This one was harder. Laughing wouldn’t make you shit your pants, after all. Not that you were wearing any in the first place. Or panties, for that matter. Those were both around your ankles.

So, he started telling some trivial story as you concentrated on your duty. You did tell him to breathe through his mouth. That done you wiped yourself and flushed the toilet, spraying some Febreze to dispel the last remnant of the stink and gave way for Sans.

You felt him sit down and took the role of telling him stories. You mostly focused on lighthearted stuff, taking any chances you could to add some puns in the midst for his benefit. You did start to smell something unpleasant at some point but continued talking so as not to let Sans feel self-conscious.

It was an odd smell, nothing like the smell of human waste. It was somewhat sweet smelling but still disgusting. Kind of like rotten fruit? A bit worse, perhaps? Well, that answered the question whether skeletons needed to use the toilet of not.

You heard the toilet roll being pulled at and, after a moment of silence of him wiping whatever there was to wipe, the water was flushed. With a sigh of relief, both of you finally left the bathroom, both filled with shame.

“Now, that was an experience.” You commented.

“…indeed.”

“Undyne and Alphys didn’t receive enough punishment for this…”

“agreed.”

“It’s unfair.”

“… we are so going to prank them even harder than this!”

“Wholeheartedly agree. Have any ideas?”

“not any that are worthy yet. you?”

“We could try to glue one of them to their own toilet seat…?” You suggested.

“great idea but still not enough. it needs to be just as humiliating.”

“Public bathroom toilet seat?”

“better.”

“And I guess we could come up with an idea similar to the Jurassic park film for Alphys. Just for the sake of irony.”

“jurassic park?”

“It’s a dinosaur movie. One guy dies while sitting on a toilet. The walls literally fall around him as he is sitting there and he screams in fear. I’m thinking of toilet walls falling and something scary on the other side.”

“…that’s so evil… i love it!”

You smiled at him.

“So… where do we sleep tonight?” You asked.

“your bed is bigger than mine.” He said in a ‘matter of fact’ tone.

“And not as messy, I suppose.” You agreed.

You led the way there and pulled back the covers. You laid down on what you just decided to claim as ‘your side’ of the bed and covered yourself. Sans hesitated.

“Dude. We just shitted ourselves in front of each other. This is no big deal compared to that.” you calmly pointed out.

“t-true…”

He slid beside you and snuggled into the soft mattress and pillow. You started talking to him and him to you to calm the nerves. As calm as you appeared to be outwards, you were still filled with raging mutant butterflies in your stomach. And yet you ended up dosing off before him. You weren’t even aware of how, at the end, you were pulled away from your body. Sans was, though. He saw as your greenish gray aura gradually turned into grayish blue the more you fell further into sleep.

This was going to be interesting…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so. it's mentioned that Rajani is playing puzzlestuck. it's this game here: http://lorenhernandez.com/puzzlestuck/  
> it's based on homestuck as far as the characters and their powers go, but aside from that I think you can play it with just fine without the need to know the plot. for those planing on eventually reading Homestuck, though, it might have some visual spoilers.
> 
> next chapter we interrupt the Living With a Skeleton Tied to You for our first ever Rajani POV!


	53. Chapter 52: The Other Side of the Coin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rajani's POV and thoughts on all of what happened up until now.  
> Rajani and Sans have a conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week there will be more Sansiranda tied together shenanigans. For now enjoy.

\--Rajani’s POV--

Rajani had always considered herself as pretty darn useless at most of anything. It came from the whole sharing a body thing, really. She had decided to let Miranda have control of their body from the moment she and her had a truce. She knew that if she’d had control of it back then, she would have been handing asses like a bitch on butler island (if said bitch was genderbending as one of the butlers like Misaki on Maid wa Kaichou-sama) or one of those free sample galls that shoved scraps of paper covered in chemically obtained scents from the super new perfume that everyone just HAD to know about (and also buy)!

But Miranda had convinced her otherwise. Miranda have shown her that there was a chance this world might not be so far gone just yet. So, she let her had their mutual body and was content on just observing.

She had only wanted to protect her mind sister as best she could, while staying away from others. She only came out to kick the asses of some of the most troubling assholes that kept pestering Miranda. She was fine with watching from afar as Miranda started making friends and had been blinded by relief and happiness when Miranda met Sophie.

Admittedly, Sophie’s relation of friendship with Miranda could be construed as not completely healthy by some nitpicky critics on hindsight. But at the time no one really cared on psychoanalyzing it much further than ‘yup, these two are best friends’.

Miranda had been bullied by her own classmates at the time. Sophie changed classes to flee from people who were bullying her and wound up on Miranda’s class. Wanting to have at least one person on her side despite it all before the others turned the new student against her, Miranda had approached first. Some would say that was an awful reason to approach someone for a friendship. To that Rajani would say: What’s it to you, you rampant abomination of nature that was so ugly that the cow mothering you had preferred to abort you as a fetus!? What do you know about being ostracized by reasons you didn’t know? What do you know about fearing that your whole class will turn one more person against you for no good reason? What do you know about loneliness?

No one had questioned it at the time so Rajani never got to give that speech.

Likewise, Sophie’s reason for befriending Miranda wasn’t exactly pure either. In fact, it turned out it was even more harmful than Miranda’s reason to befriend her. 

Miranda was already the omega of the class. Picking on her would have much effect on Sophie other than making her one of the jerks. Ignoring her was the same. But befriending her? She would get to have an ally. She hadn’t become a target by befriending Miranda but she had gained a faithful ally. And so long as she remained in the same class as her, the attention wouldn’t deviate to her. It would also make her look like a good person. After all, if she was friends with a person being bullied instead of doing the bullying, anyone observing from the outside would see her as an urban hero.

Sure, Sophie might not have been doing it with that intent initially. No thirteen-year-olds are that smart. But it always struck Rajani as funny how Sophie never got a trashed upon as much as Miranda. Heck, she barely got any mean comments about her so something must have been happening on the background that neither Miranda nor Rajani had realized.

And, like Rajani had mentioned before, she was blinded by hope and the happiness for Miranda.

She wasn’t as blinded when they met Daniel, though. Sure, he had seemed like a nice misunderstood kid at first, a bit childlike for his age of sixteen. She had seen that there was something more developing between the two. Miranda, after her experiences with her first boyfriend, had pretended to be completely oblivious to it. It’s not that she didn’t entertain some thoughts now and again, much like she was entertaining nowadays towards Sans, but she did not want to ruin the beautiful friendship they had by trying something she wasn’t sure would work out. Even though it hadn’t been any of her fault, she still bore the weight on her shoulders that she should have known better than to start dating someone due to peer pressure and curiosity. And with the schoolfriends around starting to ship them two as more than besties, that only made her even more reluctant on making a mistake. She was afraid of giving into peer pressure again. Afraid to go into this relationship thinking she had true feeling and finding out it was just more curiosity and peer pressure and ruining the pure friendship she had.

That couldn’t have been further from the truth. In fact, the polar opposite had happened. This time she had true feelings. 

But him?

He had as much feelings for her as a stalker has for their victim. He probably convinced himself that they were true (not unusual for horny teenagers that would like to think of themselves as more than horn dogs) but there was no way he felt more than obcession for her. He later even came to admit her had fallen, not for her as she was back then, but for the potential of what she could become.

Such pretty words with such dark true meanings…

He might claim all he wanted that he wasn’t looking for perfection when it came to her. That he didn’t mind her flaws. But the moment he claims that he fell for her potential it automatically means he had a vision of what he wanted her to become, consciously or not! No one can claim they love someone for their potential if they don’t have any expectations. He then proceeded by nudging her to improve herself. That would have been fine if a) she wasn’t doing it for him but for herself, and b) if he didn’t already have an ideal he was aspiring of grooming her into and actually truly loved her unconditionally.

Of course, at the beginning Rajani didn’t know any of that. He only came to admit it much later in the relationship, though he had started on trying to ‘improve’ Miranda from the start. Funny that he always took it bad when Miranda tried to repay the favor by improving him instead.

That being said, she never really liked him much after he started trying to change her mind sister. It went to the point that it actually hurt Miranda. Rajani had felt it in their minds. Miranda was hurting but Daniel’s nudging was subtle enough and Miranda was blind in love enough that she never could see why she was hurting. 

And then the lies… 

Rajani began taking notice of all those things. She began to dislike the picture that was forming. She disliked it even more when Miranda had been told of Daniel’s multiple personality, Ruben, who was potentially dangerous but hadn’t cared to tell Miranda about it beforehand.

Rajani could understand not doing it because he was afraid of her reaction. Miranda had done the same, after all, and it would be hypocritical to think otherwise. But while Miranda never once thought Rajani would ever be a danger to Daniel before then, that hadn’t been the same for him. He had wholly believed that his other personality was dangerous and he still kept that knowledge for himself. How could Miranda protect herself from something she didn’t know would attack her?

As if that wasn’t always a whole truck load of negative brownie-points for him, Daniel also had the nerve of thinking of Rajani as the villain who kept tormenting Miranda with thoughts of murder and gore. Even though Miranda had told him they had a truce going, he hadn’t cared to know more and simply labeled her as a villain. 

That hadn’t been good for Rajani’s not very stellar mental health. Or for Miranda’s for that matter. Rajani had tried to make herself be gone for several times and had almost dragged Miranda with her some of those. That was why she couldn’t fault Miranda for trying to kill herself and almost dragging her with her. That would be beyond hypocritical.

She wouldn’t bother thinking too deeply into what happened next. That was something that she already knew acutely. She had tried so hard to get her away from Daniel without much success. Miranda had been too far gone in love to care about, or even noticing, what he had been doing to her. Then things fell apart and Rajani was left tending after her.

Rajani could still remember how Miranda had acted. The first week was filled with disbelief. She kept expecting Daniel to call or try to contact her in anyway, telling her that it had been all a mistake, a nasty prank gone too far, that he still loved her. She felt so detached from the world around her. Her fruitless hope kept floating her higher and higher, further and further away from reality, until it eventually burst like a soap bubble and Miranda fell down on the ground and slammed into it with major impact. That was when she realized that there really was no hope. That he truly hated her from the bottom of his heart for something that hadn’t even been her fault. She started wondering if it had actually been her fault, but even she couldn’t delude herself into thinking it. Not that she hadn’t tried to. She had. 

She loved him and wanted him back desperately. After how much he had fucked with her mental state, she had no other choice but to believe she needed him. Despite that, she was prideful enough not to go running after him, knowing full well that doing so would only enable him into thinking he could do this every time he so chose and continue to hurt her that way to get what he wanted. Either that or he would spit in her face, victorious over his ‘dreadful’ ex-girlfriend still wanting him back.

Rajani had never felt prouder on Miranda than at that point. Even at her weakest, Miranda had stood her ground and kept to what she knew was right instead of what her feelings wanted her to do. Rajani had seen to many men using women’s feeling to manipulate them anyway they wanted. It gave her hope that Miranda fought back. Rajani had thought that, with this, she could rest assured that Miranda would be ok. That she didn’t need as much protection as she had assumed.

But things didn’t get better.

Miranda’s metal state was getting weaker and weaker after all of what Daniel and Sophie had done to her and Rajani could feel it acutely. So, Rajani tried to do something rash. She tried to merge back into Miranda. She knew that the healthy way for a multiple personality situation to go would be to merge again with its source and she hoped that, by giving Miranda her own strength, she would be able to recover at long last.

Miranda had tried to kill herself before she could do it.

…

Useless.

Rajani had never felt so useless.

She had failed in every single way to protect her mind sister. There was no denying it. All she could do was take over their body and let Miranda heal on the inside of their minds.

It hadn’t been easy. Rajani was a different person altogether from Miranda. Fortunately, her family attributed it to recovering from a major breakup and didn’t read too much into it. The hardest part had been keeping her promise to Miranda. Miranda, before Rajani had taken over for good, had made her promise not to go after her abusers. But…

…

The rage Rajani felt for them was unrivaled. She’d wanted to go Jack the Ripper on them, only she would actually keep them alive for the ripping instead of slashing their throats in a mercy kill. Heck, she would do much worse than Jackie boy had done. She would make sure they would beg for death long before she actually killed them. All that stopped her was her promise, which she took very seriously, and the fear that, by breaking it, Miranda would choose to end her life for good.

That year had been hard on Rajani but she got through it and so had Miranda. Things started to go right again and that was on Miranda. Sure, Rajani had kept her locked that first year for her safety but she wasn’t doing the best of jobs at it. Deep down, she was still pretty useless.

And then three years ago things came crashing down again.

This time Rajani didn’t have to keep you alive but taking over, but her presence had been of most value to you. As sad and wrong as it was of her, the fact that she had been to some help to Miranda had made her finally stop calling herself useless. 

In those three years, Rajani and the pack had been her whole world, something that Raj both loved and hated. She loved how much she cared about her and how much time she could dedicate to her, as selfish as that was. She hated how lonely she was and how hopeless and depressed.

Rajani had tried everything she could to make Miranda happy again. She didn’t regret the inner strength Miranda had gained along those years, but she regretted that said strength was paid with such high prices and had cost her her family and happiness. Seeing Miranda sad and depressed had made her depressed as well. Life had lost it’s meaning for them both.

And then the whole thing with the monsters happened.

It started by Papyrus saving them both in that alley. Rajani had known how close Miranda had been to giving up and would forever be thankful to the tall skeleton for reigniting something in her.

…

She wasn’t as forever thankful when Miranda decided to repay the favor. Rajani was relieved when every place Mir had tried to go to with intentions of warning everyone about the attack would find the mere idea of it happening ludicrous. As much as she felt bad for the skeleton, she loved her sister much more. Sure, she would go to his memorial if he died, but she wouldn’t have willingly put her sister in danger to save him.

It ultimately wasn’t her choice. Miranda had chosen to do that so Rajani couldn’t really deny her. She knew that Miranda was really determined to go through with it and she really couldn’t do anything against that level of determination. In the end, wanting it or not, Rajani had to go along with the ride. All she could do was pray that no one gave her sister a chance to help and keep Miranda safe as much as she could after she found an opening. Unfortunately, Mettaton had opened the doors that Rajani had hoped stayed closed.

They had both almost died that day.

Looking back on it, Rajani didn’t regret it as much, given the way things were now, but at the time she’d felt very much conflicted and afraid. All those changes and the danger… Rajani had to keep all those negative feelings from showing to her sister. Miranda had already enough shit to worry about, after all.

She was fine now. She even had her own body. Except… something else was messing with her peace of mind.

Sans.

Rajani had been ambivalent to him at the beginning and hated him after the threat he placed on them both. He had certainly started with the truck load of negative brownie-points that Daniel had taken some time to acquire.

But had steadily started getting some positive brownie points. Sure, at time he lost a few of them and Rajani handed negative brownie points much more freely that she handed positive ones. So, the fact that he was quickly catching up to neutral territory once more left her feeling uneasy.

Rajani didn’t want him to earn her respect. Rajani didn’t want him to become worthy of her sister. Rajani didn’t want him to be their friend.

But what Rajani wanted didn’t really matter in the end.

She had seen how Miranda had gradually begun to act around the short skeleton. She had caught certain trains of thought from her. It was obvious she was starting to feel something for the skeleton. Heck she already felt something for him. The only reason things hadn’t progressed on her part was the fact that Miranda was refusing to see all the signs. It’s not that she didn’t see them. She just refused to face them. Acknowledging them was on par with a game over with no other chance to change to reset a game and go back.

Truthfully, Rajani was thankful for that denial. The more Miranda kept denying, the more time Rajani had to either kick Sans away from her or resentfully appraise him as somewhat acceptable the chances of that happening was severely limited… though not as much as she would have liked). 

Unfortunately, she knew that the reasons why Miranda refused too see weren’t at all healthy and the nurturing side of her wouldn’t stand for it. She couldn’t allow for Miranda to grow anymore unhealthy habits if she could help it.

That was why, despite having her heart in panic over the prospects of Miranda investing in a relationship with the skeleton, Rajani poked and prodded some. Sure, they were halfhearted attempts, but Miranda wouldn’t be able to handle too much at once anyway (as evidenced by her latest freakout) so rajani didn’t need to be too intent on informing her.

Miranda was nearing the end of her rope. Now that she had no other option other than to admit she was physically attracted Sans but she was still struggling with -and denying- her feelings. The mere hint that she might have feelings was enough to set her off. And the way she talked herself into believing Sans had a thing for Toriel? Even Rajani was concerned about her vehemence.

She acted as if Sans being into Toriel (and therefor not into her) was crucial to her survival or something.

Rajani doubted Miranda would admit her own feelings anytime soon…

That left Rajani with the issue of what to do about Sans.

Which led to the current situation, she guessed.

“what do you want, slasher?” Were his first words at seeing that her side of the soul had taken over.

“You know, the whole world doesn’t revolve around you.” You told him with a bitter undertone.

“then why are you here?” Poor Cueball was feeling frustrated? Too bad!

“Miranda is asleep. I’m still wide awake. Aren’t you supposed to be a really smart, Cueball? Do the math!” You shot back. “I’m not any happier by this turn of events than you are. I hoped that I would be fast asleep by the time she came to bed. Unfortunately, one can’t just force themselves to sleep out of sheer will.”

“… that much is true, i'll give you that.” Sans admitted.

Rajani pondered how to proceed from here. She was pretty sure Sans was feeling as put on the spot as she was. She guessed it was time to do some prodding at the skeleton and see if she could take back some brownie-points from him. But how… ?

“She trusts you.” Rajani said matter of fact-ly.

“miranda?” He asks hesitatingly.

“Was there ever any doubt?” Rajani shot back.

Who else would Rajani be talking about. There was no one else in the room! It’s not like she went out of her way to talk to someone else in the household. Sure, she was capable of holding a conversation   
if one was initiated and of talking to others when she needed something but she was never overly friendly.

Well… admittedly she was learning to be less asocial lately…

Still, the context should have more than clued mister genius in on who she’d been talking about.

“not really, but I still wanted to make sure we were talking about the same person, here.” He retorted and then proceeded with his typical troll-face on. “wouldn’t if be awkward if you were talking about brownie while I kept assuming you were talking about someone else like tori or alphys? you would ask if-”

“Shush, no getting off topic!” She interrupted him. 

Not that she couldn’t admit that such a misunderstanding would be followed by a very interesting conversation. It would and she knew that. Heck, any other situation she could actually see herself becoming friends with him. That’ only made her want to hate him even more.

He had threatened her mind sister, the only person in the world that mattered to her. He had snooped around trying to find out their secrets at some point. Sure, he gave up after Miranda got beyond pissed with him, but the fact was that he had still done it initially. For someone who is pretty secretive himself, it really burned Rajani how he wouldn’t allow her Mir the same.

That plus all the trust issues she had made it really difficult for Rajani to accept him. She wanted to hold onto the rage and distrust he had elicited in her. She didn’t want Miranda to get hurt again. She wouldn’t be able to deal with what happened to Miranda once more. She just couldn’t. She wasn’t strong enough to keep her alive if she gave up in a manner so utterly complete again. At least with the flashbacks there was a tiny bit of Miranda that she could grasp to keep her afloat. The part that knew her sister was alive and wanted to be there for her. This last time Rajani had more to hold onto and even then, it was difficult to resist The Pull. If Miranda gave up completely just like she had when Daniel tore her apart, Rajani doubted she could keep her alive.

No, Rajani couldn’t afford having anyone take a hold on her mind sister’s heart.

“Like I said. She trusts you.” Rajani repeated once more, her resolve solidifying in a shield of stone around her heart. 

She would be ruthless with any potential suiter!

“She even felt comfortable enough with you around to let you see her soul. She clung to you for comfort.” She continued, fixing her glare on Sans’ eye lights. “My question is: What do you plan to do with her trust?”

“whoa. why do you assume that i'm going to use her in some way?” He gasped seemingly offended, though trying to remain as close to his comedian persona as he could.

She didn’t give a shit that he was feeling offended. Let him be angry and prove you right! Let him lash out!

He, of course, did none of those things. 

…

You would just have to press harder.

“You’re a guy. It’s in your male nature to take advantage of a vulnerable female.” Ok, that was too ‘feminazi’ even for her, but she wanted him to give her a reason. Just one reason!

“you don’t seem to have very high opinion of the male species.”

“I don’t.” And she really didn’t. Most men tended on following the ‘norms’ of male social behavior by fucking as much women as they could. Not all of them did, but a large significant enough margin did and that made her cautious around even seemingly nice gentleman. That being said… it wasn’t just about gender. “But if I have to be honest I don’t have very high opinion of anything capable of rational thinking that has opposable thumbs. Or anything capable of deceit and betrayal, now that there are a significant number of individuals that don’t even have hands” She added, thinking about the monsters.

“wow, talk about trust issues.”

“I never denied having them, as far as I recall. In fact, I have so many of them it comes close to becoming a personality trait rather than an issue.” Sans snorted a bit at her bleak humor but otherwise kept calm and serious, like she had demanded of him. Darn him getting even more brownie-points. She could see herself liking someone who appreciated her humor. Too bad for him she was dead set on not liking him. “That’s beside the point, though, isn’t it? That’s not what I asked you.” She said a bit harshly, hardening her heart even harder than Ramses.

“no, it’s not. i dunno what i could possibly say for you to believe me. i'm pretty sure i could give an award-winning speech and you would still doubt my word. but for all that it’s worth to you, i would never use or hurt miranda. for all intents and purposes, she’s part of the family now. we protect each other here.” He said with a shrug. “even you.” He added with a quick glance at her eyes. 

She froze her face in the aloof expression she had on. She would not show him that she appreciated him thinking about including her in that category. She was satisfied with him saying he would protect Miranda. She didn’t need any protection.

…

She would not let mere words affect her. He was saying those words but she doubted he would uphold them. As for Miranda…

She was pretty sure he would try to protect her, if nothing more than for the fact that Rajani was pretty sure Miranda’s attraction wasn’t one-sided.

 

She had no certainties and she wasn’t looking for them either. It was also something she wouldn’t let Miranda read from her side of her mind either. If he wanted Miranda, he couldn’t count on her to help him. She didn’t want those two together, after all. Why would she help him?

“Is that a promise?” She asked him, eyes fixes on his, daring him to lie.

“i'm not usually one for promises…” Sans started and, upon seeing her narrow her eyes, he continued. “but i guess this one is easy to keep.”

“Say the actual words, Cueball. I won’t settle for anything else.” She demanded.

“yes, i promise not to hurt her or use her in anyway and to protect her as part of my family.” He finally said, though he looked uncomfortable with it.

“Good.”

“yeah, whatever.” He mumbled.

He must really hate feeling pinned down by promises… yet he still did it. 

Goddamn brownie-points! Just do something hateful already!

There were no guaranties he would keep his promises, though. 

“I’m trusting you not to break your promise. So long as it remains that way we’re chill. You break it, however… You’re not going to like what I’ll have in store for you.” She added and waited for him to rage at her for the threat.

He didn’t and seemed resigned to his fate, which made Rajani feel a bit guilty over it. Not too guilty, mind you. She would do anything she felt was necessary to protect her sister! But she was a bit too forceful about it, she guessed… And one sided…

“In return, I promise to protect Papyrus as one of my own blood.” She said to smooth things over.

Sans looked back at her and there was a thankfulness in his gaze that made her flush in embarrassment. Just because she doesn’t show it often it doesn’t mean she’s not capable of other emotions towards people that weren’t her sister! Why the hell did he have to act so shocked!? Goddamit!

“What?!” She said like some sort of tsundere bitch.

“nothing, nothing.” He said shrugging and looking back at the ceiling, leaving her still fuming.

“I really don’t like you.” She asserted, not for a second looking away from him.

“yeah, yeah. i like you too, slasher.” He said dismissively.

Her anger peaked.

“WHAT!?” Was he somehow insinuating she liked him!?

“for all the ‘tough girl with no emotional attachment other than her mind sister’ act, you sure do care about others.” He commented offhandedly making her sputter. “it makes sense, all things considered. miranda displays a great affinity for your integrity several times so it would only make sense that you too would also feel an affinity for her kindness.”

That gave you pause. For as much as you wanted to get pissed at him and rant, the little soul fact was enough to draw you in.

Damn my curiosity! She thought.

There was something that was still bothering Rajani about the emergence of Miranda’s trait.

“Why is it that she still has no HP? Shouldn’t she regain some now that she is recovering her trait?” She asked.

“she still has no hp?” Sans asked.

“Can’t you see soul stats?” She asked mockingly.

“i can, but your health bars look fused while your soul is inside your body. I haven’t exactly had the chance to see those particular stats again.” He commented.

“Oh, ok then. Yeah, she still has no HP. Which is weird. If she loses my HP when her mental health isn’t good then why isn’t she regaining her own HP now that she is starting to feel better than ever?” She asked.

“her lack of hp must be unrelated to her fading, then.” Sans said, his expression indicating he was deep in thought. 

“Her health bar feels like a black hole when she’s having a seriously bad PTSD flashback.” She revealed with a little shiver. “Worse yet: a dementor. Every good thing starts being sucked away. The only reason I can remain sane and steadfast in keeping us alive is the simple fact that she needs me and like hell I’m going to give up on her that way!”

“i'm glad you won’t give up on her. the world would be a bleaker place without her around.” Sans commented and she jolted her head his way.

He was looking a little sleepy, probably pretty close to entering dreamland. She doubted he would have openly said that otherwise. Upon noticing her reaction and then considering his own words, Sans woke up a bit and he face literally glowed cyan blue in the dark, making her snort.

Talk about having a nightlight.

“You really do like my sister that much, huh?” She asked with a smirk.

“i don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said a bit too rushed to be believable.

“Oh, you do. Don’t worry, though. I have no intention on interfering with her love life. I won’t deny her if she wants to start something with you. It’s not my place to do so. But I also won’t help you either, considering I don’t want you in our lives. You would have to impress me big time for me to actually wholeheartedly encourage you.”

“does… doe she feel any-“

“No can do, Cueball. I won’t tell her of your romantic inclinations towards her, why would I tell you about her feelings?”

“fair point.”

“Certain as the sun rises in the East.”

The was a long moment of silent as they both stared at the ceiling waiting for sleep to come.

“it’s not use, i’m too wide awake.” He said and proceeded to spread arms and legs as wide as he could, bothering her and her pack.

She sighed heavily.

“Just go to sleep, asshole.”

“can’t.”

She sighed resignedly and reached a hand to massage his scalp.

“I’m only doing this so that Mir won’t have to drag you from place to place while you are asleep. I don’t actually care if you fall asleep.” She said.

She then proceeded on singing Trust In Me once more. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep that way. Rajani was still awake for some time but eventually joined him and her sister in oblivion.


	54. Chapter 53: Fuck You very, Very Much

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Proof that Miranda is _not_ a push over. (especially when it comes to people she cares about) ;P

You first thoughts upon waking up were about how comfortable you were feeling. Then they turned to what time it was because you had to go to work but decided that, since the alarm clock hadn’t rung, you still had time to spare. For now, you would just enjoy the warm coziness enveloping you.

And then came the slow realization that the warm coziness wasn’t so much as enveloping you as it was downright hugging you with two very real arms… and that you were hugging it back. You were still too dazed to really be overly concerned with it, but it intrigued you enough that the drowsiness slowly receded from you… and you remembered the night before.

Your first instinct was to jump but you forced yourself to freeze instead as you took note of your current position.

Sans’ head was resting just below your chin, his nose hole nuzzling the intersection of your neck and shoulder, his breath tickling you in a way that was light enough not to stimulate you too much, but still present enough to be noticeable on your 'neck weakness'. One of your arms was cupping the back of his skull to you while your other one pressed against his back. His arms were both positioned around your torso, one going up to your shoulder blades and the other… was… pretty close to copping a feel of your ass cheek. One of your legs was between his while your other one was thrown over his hips.

…

You died.

Of mortification.

Or were going to any second now.

…

You prayed for thunderbolts and lightning to strike you down before the skeleton woke up.

You obviously weren’t so lucky.

You pulled away, intending on extracting yourself from him. Sliding your leg from his hips was easy, and you did manage to move away enough so as to see his face, but his arms tightened around you, keeping you from moving further towards your freedom. You almost squealed at the sudden action that would guarantee the same outcome of complete mortification still came about. You wanted nothing more than to abscond like your life depended on it.

And yet…

You saw Sans’ face and couldn’t help but think… 

I’ve never seen him look so peaceful…

And you hadn’t ever seen him look that way before. Even in previous nights, in which you two had fallen asleep together and you woke up with him still asleep, you had never seen such a peaceful expression on his face. There was always some tell: a brow that was a bit too 'frowny'; a corner of the mouth that was just a tad too set into a grimace… Today all those signs were absent and you knew for sure he hadn’t had any nightmares. 

That reminded you… Incredibly so hadn’t you.

You guessed that, if there was a higher power that ruled over luck, they had taken pity on you both for once? 

That being said, you couldn’t bear to be the one to interrupt his sleep. Not when he looked so peaceful at it. And you guessed you didn’t mind him hugging you either. It’s not like you were doing anything risqué, after all. Just sleep-cuddling. And since he was asleep, the nervousness-induced butterflies in your stomach were pretty tame as well.

With him asleep, you weren’t too concerned with him catching you looking at him in improper ways or fantasizing about him. You could hold him and pretend…

…pretend what?...

No, there was nothing to pretend _anything_ in this situation. It was simple and linear. You liked cuddling and Sans was surprisingly comfortable. There was no need to come up with a would-be scenario of any sort or reason!

You cuddled back into the skeleton, refusing to think about stupid things.

And yet the sinking feeling in your gut that you’d abjured remained there, haunting you with half finished trains of thought that made no sense to your very logical mind.

= **This is getting ridiculous.** = Rajbot said from her charging post. Rajani was clearly awake. = **Welp! I’m certainly not going to interfere. I’m going to hang out with the early birds. Besides, I need to ask Alphys for more of whatever she used to power my jet-feet. See ya soon.** =

With that, Rajbot flew out of the room. How long had Rajani been awake, exactly? And wasn’t Alphys still in the throes of love with Undyne?

_**Not the point.**_ Rajani added and proceeded to ignore you once more.

You tried to cuddle back into Sans, but the peacefulness of the morning was gone. You merely decided to wait it out, then.

You were lucky that Undyne and Alphys were in the midst of… well, considering what you had learned… a very exhausting morning. In the good way. But if they weren’t you were sure they would have busted in and snapped a few photos of you two. Thank goodness for that!

Eventually Sans began to stir and you tried not to panic. The best course of action was nonchalance! You should pretend that you didn’t spend the last half an hour watching him sleep and that you were actually doing something else. You quickly swipe your phone from the bedside table with an incredible feat of elasticity and pretend you were checking your e-mail. It had been just in time too. Not a second later Sans opened one eye socket blearily.

He looked at you with the most dazed expression and then leaned back towards you, nuzzling your neck. You shivered. No! Your biggest weakness!

“S-Sans?” You called him before he could do something more. “What are you doing?”

“hmm?” He asked, leaning back to look at your face.

You watched as realization sunk in and he literally bolted away from you, blue faced. That on its own was already sort of funny, but the fact that he had somehow managed to get tangled up in the sheets and had literally fallen off the bed with his legs still caught up on the fabric? Now that was gold as far as you were concerned.

“Good morning to you too.” You said as soon as you stopped laughing too hard.

“uh… mornin’.” He said, looking content on staying exactly where he ‘landed’ if it meant not moving.

“Welp. Thank god you finally woke up! I really needed to get up and I couldn’t move with your arms around me.” You commented just for the sake of flustering him.

It worked and you couldn’t help but smirk on the inside at that. You weren’t done yet, though. Now it was time to make him uncomfortable instead.

“But then, even if you didn’t have your arms around me, I still would have to wake you up if I wanted to go anywhere…” You ‘pondered’. “I guess I would have to carry you everywhere bridal style, then. Thank god Alphys and Undyne aren’t here if that was the case. They would start saying things like we are official or something. They might even try to get us married on the very same day.”

“you wouldn’t really do that.” He said.

“Oh, I would too! And I would doodle on your face as well! I’m thinking anime eyes in your socket lids and something glittery for your cheekbones. You don’t really have lips though, so I can’t really use lipstick… But I’m sure I could come up with something…”

“…i'm sure you would.” He admitted. “ok, ok. i get the point. i'll get up.” He finally said and started struggling with the sheets. 

That hadn’t really been your point, though, you just wanted to tease him. But you were hungry so it was probably for the best. You giggled a bit when he seemed unable to wrestle himself free of sheets and went around the bed to help him de-tangle himself. He squeaked a bit when you had to grab one of his femurs to keep it still as you messed around with the fabric.

“Sorry. Just try to keep still.” you told him and he stopped moving that leg, making it easier for you to free it.

He was finally released from his bindings of 100% pure cotton and you helped him up. His cheekbones were a bit blue, probably from all of the exertion of trying to free himself and he looked more rumpled than usual, his clothes askew. It was adorable.

“Let’s go?” You asked him extending a hand to him.

“ok.” He said, taking it with his.

You yawned a bit as you crossed the threshold of your room and he followed not long after. Talk about contagious yawning. Once in the kitchen you spotted two plates of spaghetti on the table, next to some waffles with several choices of toppings at their side. There were two post it notes on the different meals.

As you expected, the spaghetti had a message from Papyrus.  
.

>   
>  -SKINNY HUMAN AND BROTHER, SINCE YOU SEEMED TO BE SLEEPING SO PEACEFULLY I DECIDED NOT TO WAKE YOU. YOU DID HAVE TO STAY UP WAY PAST YOUR USUAL BEDTIME, AFTER ALL. DO NOT MAKE AN HABIT OF THIS, THOUGH (I’M TALKING TO YOU BROTHER). I HAVE MADE YOU BOTH SOME SPAGHETTI FOR BREAKFAST THAT WILL HELP YOU THROUGH THE TRIBULATIONS OF THIS DAY. NO NEED TO THANK ME. AFTER ALL, I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! IT IS ONLY EXPECTED OF ME TO BE SO MAGNANIMOUS!-
> 
> -THE GREAT PAPYRUS-   
> 

.  
.

You smiled at the note, wondering where he had learned the word ‘magnanimous’. It was clearly a new addition to his vocabulary or he would have used it before. Still, the fact that he had seen you both asleep… 

Unlike Sans, you didn’t delude yourself into thinking he was a pure innocent lamb with no sinful thoughts. There was no way a part of Papyrus hadn’t wondered about why you were cuddling so intimately. Still, he would believe you if you told him the truth, unlike Undyne and Alphys who would just screech about their shipping being finally cannon and not giving you a change to refute.

The second note had a calligraphy very similar to yours but more mechanical looking, meaning it was probably addressed to you from Rajani.  
.

> **  
> -I’m going to test out how far away from you I can get. Saved some of Toriel’s cooking for you. I’ll try to work in your stead, sis.-**
> 
> **-Raj (or Slasher if you are a small blue skeleton)-**
> 
> **-(PS – I’ll try to prank Nedd for you. ;P)-**
> 
> **-(PPS – Oh, and fuck you very much, Sans 8] )**   
> 

.  
.

“good day to you too, slasher.” Sans retorted upon reaching the end on the note, reading over your shoulder.

You couldn’t help but chuckle at his humored tone of voice. You were slightly surprised he wasn’t angry at her and was in fact taking Raj’s vinegar in stride but you welcomed it with open arms.

One inquiry towards your sister revealed that she sounded pretty far away, like she was too into her own thoughts that she couldn’t spare you a second, which was an odd feeling for you. You were so used to her immediately focusing on you when you greeted her. She informed you that your soul antenna range was pretty large all things considered before she returned to her tasks.

You retrieved the cutlery from its rightful drawer as Sans took out a couple of glasses for your drinks from a nearby cabinet. You then retrieved your preferred drinks and sat down at the table. Since it was close to lunch time, you wound up eating all of the food offered with ease. 

Since you were already there, you decided to make Toriel’s job easier and start off with lunch. Sans snagged another office chair and was rolling after you like a little duckling following its mother as you moved around the kitchen. You had sort of expected him to take a nap or something. You hadn’t expected that, whenever he realized what you were reaching for, he would float it to you instead.

You smiled gratefully every single time he did it.

When she returned, Toriel was more than happy to rest her feet after you convinced her that, since you already had started cooking the meal, you might as well finish it too. You didn’t have much time to relax after you ate lunch, though. Sans wanted to go to work extra early to explain your presence next to him to his manager.

You changed into some clothing that could pass you off as a manager for the untrained eye. You doubted you would get your own uniform just for one day there.

Sans had decided tactfully not to test your bindings with solo teleportation before. There was no saying whether you would be ripped apart by his short cut, be suddenly violently thrown towards his new spot with force strong enough to break bones, or get lost in the void.

Those shouldn’t be a problem if you both teleported together so you held each other as your surroundings shifted to show a decrepit alleyway that you recognized as being right behind the accursed fast food restaurant.

You two walked around to the front and Sans dragged you to the counter where he requested to speak with the manager.

You heard Sans trying to explain to the manager what happened while the manager looked very doubtful of his story. You tried to hold yourself back from making a particularly venomous remark to the arsehole. Eventually she tried to actually test how ‘glued together’ you were by having two burly men from the kitchen area trying to pry you apart and failing. You had to impose yourself when, in their efforts to separate you more than the three feet, they started hurting both of you.

At last the manager conceded that you would join him in the BOP, seeming a bit less upset about the whole thing when you told her you used to work at a McDonald’s before and, if needed be, you could help Sans out. She wasn’t as pleased when you insisted with her that he should be payed extra time for your work there, however, but ultimately agreed that you deserved to earn something for your work and, since you didn’t have your bank account on their registry, she agreed she would wire the money to Sans. 

Little did both of them know that you didn’t intend on getting your money from him at all. You figured that he deserved it for what he put up with daily. You also knew he was working extra time for the sake of having a Christmas budget.

You followed Sans up to the changing rooms and waited outside of the door for him as the workers that still didn’t know what was going on eyed you strangely. You didn’t really care. You weren’t here to make a good impression and most of them certainly hadn’t made a good impression on you either with the way they were sneering at Sans.

You followed him back to the serving area, donned a white hair-net over your previously tied down hair and washed your hands. You then followed Sans to the BOP where he replaced the two people there. One was at the end of his shift and the other one was reassigned to deal with just the fries. You took a moment to check how much of each item you already had fried and found the list a bit lacking for the only McDonald’s in town, even if it was already past the lunch hour rush.

“Erm… Sans. Is this really enough?” You asked him. 

There was basically enough to make one of each item and nothing more.

“nah. i usually have to fry some more whenever i clock in.” He said from the freezer.

Considering the fact that he was already taking out the stuff he needed without even looking to see what he already had, it meant that this was a reoccurring endeavor. You saw a request for a McChicken pop up and started toasting the bread for it while recalling all the ingredients to garnish this particular request. 

McChicken’s were the easiest to make. They were one of the most requested fried chicken sandwiches. Not nearly as much requested as McNuggets, though. Those trumped over all the other things that BOP did… unless you counted the fried potatoes. You usually counted it as something separate, though. That was just your personal opinion on the matter and nothing else.

By the time Sans was done with putting everything he needed on the oil, you had finished prepping the bun for the meat. You took the tray towards where the fried products were kept and Sans grabbed some tweezers and took hold of the last remaining patty for that burger. The box was closed and set down on a heated compartment as it waited to be picked up.

More orders were issued not long after, mostly for the McNuggets. You only had enough for a bag of four and nothing more. The other orders would have to wait.

It took you some time to get used to the rhythm of the work after so long of not working in the fast food industry but you eventually nailed it and worked relatively in sync with Sans. Then again, he was used to not having any help at all so being spared certain tasks served him plenty. Be that as it may, the managers seemed satisfied with your service and that was enough of you. Mid-afternoon the requests decreased exponentially so you had some time to chat and joke around with Sans, much to his coworkers’ dismay. 

They didn’t seem to understand how you got along so well with a monster. In a way, you being there seemed to help them open up to Sans some. Not a lot, and not all of them, that’s for sure, but still an improvement. At some point the fries’ girl even asked in a shy manner if it was true that monsters had magic.

You had learned that Sans actually was sort of friends with one of the managers that wasn’t there that day, but Alex was a guy of few words and not exactly the best person to show the others that ‘yes, Sans is a monster, but he isn’t a bad guy’.

Still, most of the people there didn’t seem too thrilled to talk to either of you. And honestly? You preferred when the racists did just that. Don’t like then don’t interact. Simple. There was one girl, however…

“How can you stand to be near that disgusting thing!?” She said.

She was one of the cashiers but, since it was down time and not many people were coming, she felt entitled to express her racism. Her comment sparked a deep and instantaneous rage within you. How dare she refer to such an intelligent and caring man such as Sans like he was a vile disease! In front of you no less! You looked around as if searching for someone, shrugged and kept cleaning your work space like nothing had happened. Near you Sans was standing rigidly.

“Hello!? I’m talking to you!” She went on as soon as she realized you intended on ignoring her.

“…Sans… Do you hear anything?” You ask him, fixing your face in a confused expression.

“erm…”

“What!?” The brat was pissed. This time your dismissal of her presence was crystal clear.

“See? There it goes again! Sounds like… well. Like an infant who thinks I give a fuck about what she has to say!” You continued in your most innocent-sounding tone. 

Some people in the kitchen and the fries’ girl, Latifah was her name, snorted.

“What did you call me!?!?!?”  
You finally turned to her.  
“Honey, sweetie, apple of my eyes! Do I look like I’m interested in anything you have to say besides ‘Where are the Nuggets!’?” You said in a sweet adult woman, slightly motherly but also somewhat cold-hearted-bitch tone, proceeding with a caricature of a really bratty kid in the ‘dialogue’. “Now, if you don’t mind. Us grownups were having a polite conversation before you so rudely interrupted.”

“What’s THAT supposed to mean!?” She continued, growing even more enraged.

“What you heard, dearie! I’m not interested in talking to a child. Please find another grown up to bother or go about your duties like you should have done from the start.” You told her.

“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?”

“Oh, my, are you hard of hearing after all? Poor thing. Perhaps I should use sign language to make myself clear.” You proceeded to sign while talking at the same time. “Please return to your duties to the McDonald’s company and leave the grownups to talk. There’s no way a child of mere sixteen years old could comprehend the dynamics of an adult conversation.”

That’s served to offend her even more than any words you had said previously.

“I’m nineteen!!!!”

“You could have fooled me, apple cheeks. Your conversational skills and thought processes are so childlike it’s no wonder I got confused. Still, my request stands. I would prefer to talk to someone on my maturity level and you have already proved yourself incapable of addressing another person like the civilized adult you claim to be.” You signed and said.

“Stop that, I can hear you just fine, you bitch!”

“Oh, you can? What a surprise. And name calling? Really? Just goes to prove you’re more of a child than a grown up. First off!” You quickly interrupt her before she can spout more nonsense. “I’m _not_ your family. I’m _not_ one of your little friends. I’m not even one of your classmates. What exactly gives _you_ the right to address _me_ so casually and, most of all, rudely the way you did? No greeting, no ‘may I talk to you’, and you didn’t even phrased it in a polite manner! Just that alone gives me more than enough reasons to dismiss your presence. You are lucky that I’m usually a nice person. Someone else would have ripped you a new one right there and then. SHUSH! The adult it talking right now!” You harshly interrupt her once more with a glare that manages to silence her immediately. “Second off! Not only was your approach to me rude, you also decided it was a wonderful idea to insult Sans! We are talking about someone who never did anything to you personally aside from, apparently, existing. A man who is caring towards his younger brother! A man who is capable of staying awake a whole night just to make sure a woman who isn’t even his friend won’t have nightmares after a traumatic event! A man who definitely has more brain power than anyone else in this place, showing great knowledge in science, but is more concerned with getting his brother a new home! And I’m willing to bet you didn’t know any of these things about him before deciding to trash all over his accomplishments for the mere fact that he is a monster! And FINALLY!” This time you didn’t have to interrupt her, as she was too shocked at your rage to do anything other than tremble. “I have not once cussed at you. The only thing you can really point the finger at me is that I called you childish, which you were being, and was a bit rude and condescending to you in retaliation to your actions. Heck, I even called you things like sweetie and dearie. What the FUCK gives you the right to call me, and I quote, ‘a bitch’?! Your turn! What do _you_ have to say?”

She remained a blubbering mess, tears threatening to leak down her face, looking absolutely embarrassed at her public shaming.

“That’s what I thought. I would suggest you take a small break to go to the bathroom and then return to your post. For the duration of my stay here I would appreciate you do not seek me out unless for reasons related to the job. Nobody here wants your opinion, especially if it’s an uneducated one.”

She dashed off and you sighed, trying to let go of the nervous energy that ran through or veins like electricity. Your anger had probably made you release adrenaline, considering how much excessive energy you felt. You wanted to punch something. Instead you forced yourself to calm down and continued to clean your station quietly and even followed by cleaning the fryer from all the oil there.

Sans couldn’t find it in him to bother you in the stated you were in right then and you admitted it was probably for the best, even though it made you sad that he was now afraid of your temper.

“You have quite the defender, Sans.” Latifah commented, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow.

“Man, those were some sick burns!” Someone in the kitchen side commented. “I’ve never seem anyone putting the preppy in her place before!”

“That’s because we are too used to her bratty-ness to pay it any mind, dude!”

Slowly the conversations resumed to normal and so did your pulse.

…

Until Sans gave you a side hug, putting his hand on your waist, his other one resting on the tabletop besides the machine.

“thanks, miranda.” He said.

Somehow, him having called you by your name only served to fluster you even more. You dry-swallowed your senseless nervousness to reply.

“It was no problem, Sans.” You said.

The rest of the day went uneventfully. You didn’t even realize when exactly the purple magic surrounding you had faded, allowing you to stay away from Sans if you so wanted. You were too busy helping him out and had grown rather used to standing near him.

By the end of the day you were so tired you slept like a baby once you settled down on your bed.


	55. Chapter 54: I Don’t Usually Play Support, But When I Do…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nedd's POV, just to make it interesting...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, basically Nedd was a character that I created for the sole purpose of writing Miranda's work place but I have to admit he has grown on me so I decided to expand on his character by writing this chapter. Hope you like him too since I already have plans for him. he did help out Undyne and Alphys with their wedding prank on our favorite couple after all :)

\--Nedd’s POV--

Man, they weren’t kidding when they said they would be busy with a capital B. Like 48 hours of busy followed by several more hours recovering the missed sleep hours, it seemed.

He was halfway through his work day when the newlyweds finally contacted him, hoping for new developments where Miranda and Sans were concerned. Nedd wasn’t surprised that Undyne was the one doing the call. Nor was he surprised that Alphys was still asleep from all of the exertion. 

“Should I expect a baby shower anytime soon?” He asked instead of replying to the fish monster’s question, wanting to prolong the teasing atmosphere a bit longer. 

Thankfully Undyne never took it bad. She had grown used to his way of acting some time ago and actually bantered back if she was in the mood. This day she apparently wasn’t in the mood for for that.

“Erm… we’re not really sure. Not until the soul magic settles, at least.” She said surprisingly honest.

Nedd was good at reading cues. Far greater at it than anyone else gave him credit for. By her reply he could immediately deduce two things: It was time for more mature conversation instead of banter; and the chance that that first soul mingling might result in babies was incredibly high.

“She wants them too.” He stated instead of asking. It had been clear to him from the start of their friendship that Undyne was pretty invested on having kids. He kept the gentle mannerisms that everyone had gotten used to but cut back on the boundless energy as this moment did not call for it.

“Yeah… Or at least she’s given it great consideration, according to her. She was still doubtful, but that was because she still doesn’t think too highly of herself…” Undyne admitted listlessly.

That must mean she was away from the bedroom. Undyne never talked about how hard it was on her to see her girlfriend’s (now turned wife) self-doubts and self-hatred. She had toughed it out before, apparently. At best she only admitted how hard it was for her to Asgore or her ‘adoptive father’, apparently a turtle monster named Gerson.

To be honest, Nedd had never anticipated for her to trust him with such sensitive information but she said that, despite not having Sans’ powers of reading auras, she was a great judge of character and knew she could trust him. He had never suspected that telling her about his wife leaving him so many years ago could have elicited such a sense of trust.

He, unknowingly, became another of her emotional supports. She dealt with her wife’s’ problems mostly by herself, slowly building her up from whatever had happened in the underground that had left her in shambles. Now it wasn’t as hard as it used to be. Alphys had gone through some major changes on her outlook on life and on her feelings of self-worth. It was still an ongoing battle. Anxiety and depression aren’t things that went away that easily, after all. Still, according to Undyne, the changes were big.

That didn’t mean that Undyne wouldn’t feel tired at times from being there for her wife. Nedd knew she wouldn’t trade it for anything. She certainly would never resent Alphys for any setbacks she had with her conditions and tried to be patient as possible. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t hard on her.

Undyne… wasn’t what someone would describe as a patient woman. The mere fact that she was still so patient with Alphys was proof of how strong her love for the drake woman was. That being said, it meant that she still needed some support herself and she was unwilling to show her ‘pupil’, Papyrus, any of her vulnerabilities. 

She wanted to still look strong in front of the tall skeleton since she had been his teacher for so long and he had always looked up to her. She wouldn’t count on Asgore anymore, saying that he had enough things to worry about for her to bother him with even further. She had never actually met Toriel before the day the barrier broke, so she didn’t feel comfortable going to her. She hardly knew Sans and, admittedly, he didn’t seem too reliable at a first glance. And she wouldn’t ask for support from the kids.

As for Miranda, the newest person in the household… Undyne told him that, though she knew that his coworker was more than capable of giving sound advice and listening to her, she didn’t want to burden her any further if she could avoid it. Something had apparently happened during Miranda’s extra days off. She didn’t offer more information and he didn’t ask.

Nedd having shown her his own vulnerabilities had opened her up, though, which was weird. Something about him having already gotten over his pain? Either way it really didn’t matter to him why she relied so quickly on him. Well… it mattered but not in a way that was essential for him to keep on being there for her.

Which lead to the current situation.

“How soon will you be able to tell?” He asked.

“A few days, probably a week and a half, for the magic of the bond to settle down enough for us to know for sure. Usually an already bonded monster wouldn’t need this long to know but since we just soulbounded… To be honest I wasn’t expecting her to already be this ready for a child. She always sounded so reluctant when we talked about adopting MK.”

“And how are you feeling about all of this?” He asked, shifting the attention back to the fish woman. She was already spending way too much time worrying about her wife. Now she needed some time for herself.

“Mostly confused. I feel so excited just to know it’s possible but at the same time so nervous. I hadn’t expected for my Alphy to be this open to the idea. It’s going so fast… But I think I’m mostly happy.” She admitted. “But enough of that conversation, punk! What are the details on the Sansiranda! Don’t leave out any of them!”

He wasn’t surprised at the change of subject. As much as she needed support for the more sensitive side of her personality, she also preferred not dwelling on it too long.

“There’s not really that much to tell. As you know the first day of work Miranda took the day off and had me do double the work to make up for it. After being told what we did Greg decided that was a fitting punishment. Rajani showed up, though. She seemed in a bad mood?”

“That makes sense. She doesn’t like Sans very much.” Undyne explained. “Did she tell you anything?”

“Nothing much, really. At one point she did freeze up, though. I think she disconnected from the body for a moment since the heart symbol on her chest and the eye lights turned off.” He continued. “When she logged back on she told me that apparently Miranda had told off a, and I quote, ‘stupid bitch’. There might be deep feelings involved on that, though. Jani did say that ‘the bitch’ made some very rude comments about Sans.”

“HECK YEAH! That girl better be defending her sweetheart with all her might!”

“That’s what I thought too.” He admitted, though he hadn’t been quite so outwardly excited as Undyne was being. “Next day she showed up like normal and there didn’t seem to be anything amiss at first glance.”

“Awww!” Undyne grumbled in disappointment.

“On a second and far deeper look, though…” Nedd continued.

“Ah! How could you! Making me believe nothing had happened!” Undyne protested.

“Pfft! Yeah, yeah. Sorry.” He laughed. “As I was saying, she really acted like normal. I almost thought nothing had changed there. This woman sure has a firm poker face!” He admitted. Then again, that fact wasn’t that surprising, all things considered. “But when it started getting closer to the time for us to clock out is when she started acting oddly. At times she seemed to be mentally arguing with Rajani about something. It was actually amusing. I would see her facial expression change as she kept staring at the Rajbot. When she wasn’t doing that she would seem to get absorbed in complicated thoughts.

“Those are reasonably good signs, but nothing really conclusive.” Undyne protested.

“True. But I’m pretty sure I saw her blush for a moment when Helen told her Sans was waiting for her while she was neck deep in thoughts. She covered it up quick enough but I’m pretty sure it was there.” And when he was sure of something then there really was no other way around it. He was far too good at observing people to be deceived by a trick of light.

“Now THAT’S what I’m talking about, punk!” Undyne cheered.

“Unfortunately, they still don’t seem to be getting much quality time together.”

“Sans still working overtime, huh?” 

“Yep. He only comes to collect her way after dinner time. Reading time has taken a toll on her as well, apparently. I heard that she somehow managed to finish reading Harry Potter last night to the kiddos. Today morning she looked like a zombie and at times almost fell asleep standing. I’m willing to bet Sans probably isn’t doing much better. I’m also willing to bet that tonight they’ll probably go home and straight to sleep.”

“Yeah… I’m not going to take that bet.” Undyne affirmed.

“It is a pretty easy win for me, true.” Nedd admitted.

“Where’s the punk, by the way?” She asked.

“I’m right here!” he said just to mess with her.

“I meant the other punk!”

“Your carelessness wounds me.” He shot back pretending to actually be hurt before dropping all pretenses. “But anyway, the girly is out for lunch right now. Probably at Grillby’s. She did say that she hasn’t been going there that regularly anymore. With that she actually means that she missed one day in a whole week worst case scenario.” 

“She has a weird definition of not going to places regularly.” Undyne commented.

He heard greetings from Jessie and Eddy who were in the cafeteria with him and a familiar voice replying back.

“Speaking of the girly. She just returned. Want me to transmit a message to her?” Nedd asked as he watched Miranda pass by the cafeteria’s entrance towards the elevator.

“Nah! I’ll talk with the punk later! I want to see her reaction for myself when I ask her how she dealt with spending 24 hours tied to the lazybones.” Undyne replied.

“Ok, fine by me.” He agreed. “Bye for now, then!” He added cheerily. 

“Bye, punk!”

He turned the cellphone off and got up. There was work to be done after all. And he had to keep a close eye on Miranda as well. He decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator. There was always something eerie about using an elevator. 

“Hey, girly!” he greeted Miranda cheerily.

She turned around, Rajani on her shoulder, and stared suspiciously at him. He couldn’t really blame her for her reticence, after all that he and the newlyweds had done to her. Well… he wouldn’t put it that way. He would say ‘what they had done _for_ her’. She just doesn’t know what’s best for her yet.

“Hei, Nedd.” She finally replied, still a bit cautious.

“How was the flame daddy?” He asked with a wicked grin.

“…erm… Ok, never use that term in front of me again.” She said with a blush in her cheeks and the definition of uncomfortableness on her face.

“Why not, though? He is a flame and he also is a dad. I’m not lying or anything.”

“Yeah, but the way you say it one would think you have other things in mind. Do you have other things in mind? Do you want to make him your ‘daddy’?” Miranda asked her face changing to exasperated.

“You have a surprisingly dirty mind.” Nedd commented.

“Aha! I didn’t say anything dirty. In fact, it was you who brought up that particular subject!” She pointed a finger at him vindictively.

“… wow. You actually got me with that one.” He admitted, and then laughed.

Miranda smirked and carefully high fived Rajani so as not to push her tiny, flying robot body away.

Work hours went by as usual with little highlights. The Christmas special was practically done and they only needed to finish another two episodes, one of them was already half done, for a TV show before Christmas.

Nedd wasn’t surprised when Miranda stayed overtime again and, once more, he offered Greg to stay and look after her while he got home early. Greg handed over the keys to the studio. Nedd was the only person who managed to arrive even earlier than him, after all.

With Greg gone and leaving the two alone, they chatted with each other as they waited for Sans to arrive. He, as always, inserted his fair share of innuendos and teasing while Miranda inserted her fair share of denial and glaring as they both took the chance to work some more on the special.

…

Sans was late. Even for ‘Sans’ standards. Miranda had definitely noticed too, considering how much she was fidgeting. Even Rajani had been very visibly concerned, before she simply absconded somewhere. He saved his progress and turned to the disconcerted woman.

“Hei, should we call him or something?” He asked.

“I already tried but… he isn’t really the kind to pick up a phone call. He is more of a texting guy.” She said, though she didn’t sound very convinced.

“Well, has he texted you yet?”

Her whole face fell.

“No.” And before he could comment any further she continued. “It’s my fault. It has to be. It’s probably that bratty bitch! She probably got pissed off at me for calling her out on her racism! She probably has powerful friends. Oh god! What did I do?! What if she got someone to attack him on his way here? All because I mouthed off to her! Why am I so messed up?! Why can’t I ever think before I act?!”

Ok, of all the things he wasn’t expecting her to start panicking so badly. Was she really that afraid that her words caused a woman that was clearly already a monster hater to attack Sans? She would have regardless, if that was the case. That was usually the case with monster haters. If they were dead set on attacking they would regardless of what one said to them. Sure, they might use it as an excuse later on, claiming the person egged them on, but that’s not really why they did it. Heck, sometimes words were enough to get haters to reconsider. And if they weren’t planning on outright attacking monsters before, Nedd doubted the words of someone defending monsters would convince them to go ahead and do it out of spite. Those sorts of people only moved on to attacking when other people with the same mentality supported their opinions and incentivized them into going physical.

“Hey. Girly? Get over here, come on.” He motioned her closer and she complied far too easily. “The skelepun will be fine, don’t worry. He’s probably just late. Want us to go get him from work instead?”

It seemed like she was about o nod yes when a faraway look overcame her facial expression. She gradually stopped trembling the longer she remained with those glazed eyes. After a moment her face became a deep red and she snapped out of it.

“R-Raj went to McD’s to check in with Sans. He… fell asleep in the bathroom before he could change clothes. He’s so deep in his slumbering that he wouldn’t wake up no matter what she did. She… started changing his clothes because of McD’s uniform policy.”

“Is that why you blushed?” He asked.

“She s-started without warning me before hand.” She explained becoming red again.

“So, what you gonna do now?” Nedd asked.

“I’ll go there and get him. Hopefully there are still buses for my stop. I don’t think he would be in any condition of teleporting even if he woke up.”

“Hmm.” Nedd pondered on the subject. A woman walking around at that time of night was already bad news, let alone a woman who was also carrying a skeleton monster. “Change of plans. I’ll give you both a ride.”

“What?” She yelped in surprise. “O-oh! There no need, really. I can handle it easy peasy. Skeletons aren’t that heavy, you know?”

“No, I didn’t know but there’s no way I’m letting you both go on the bus like this. Go grab your things and meet me downstairs.

“But...”

“Nope! I’m not listening. I’ll be waiting downstairs all night if need be!”

“Fiiiiine.”

Nedd was glad to see that Miranda wasn’t trying to avoid his help. From what he gathered, Miranda had the tendency of wanting to be independent to an unhealthy level. 

The drive wasn’t long and Nedd decided to wait in the car in front of the restaurant for Miranda to return. She rushed inside, exchanged some quick words with one of the managers and disappeared through a side door. After some time of waiting and nodding along to the music on the radio, something old but classic, Miranda finally exited the side door carrying a very much unconscious skeleton, bride style, with a robot floating at her side.

Nedd immediately snapped a photo of it, added a small description and sent it to Undyne. Her response was immediate but he didn’t get to read it because Miranda was opening the back door and propping Sans up, buckling him into place. 

Nedd observed her from the front mirror. She looked downright clinical as she made sure he was properly buckled into place but then, with that job done, she looked back at his face and her expression softened. She was even smiling a bit. Her gaze was so tender it was almost as if she was caressing his cheek with her eyes. 

How could she still deny this? It made no sense. She was clearly enamored with him, if not even in love. Why keep on pretending she didn’t feel a thing? And the way she acted when he asked that one time before Undyne’s and Alphys’ wedding? She acted so… terrified? He hadn’t even realized it until Rajani put a stop to it. Sure, he knew she was getting irritated with their meddling but it wasn’t until Rajani defended her and he finally took a closer look at her that he realized she was pretty close to having a panic attack.

Why did the thought of her being in a relationship terrify her so much? He had some guesses that were merely based on what things he had observed so far as well as some things that Undyne and Alphys had told him but there must be something deeper.

He wasn’t exactly in the best position to help her right now. He had never been. Not in the… how much time had really gone by since he officially met her? He had joined this studio a couple of weeks after she did, he remembered that much. It wasn’t important anyway. He could always check it on his calendar later.

He waited until she sat on the front seat as Rajani grudgingly sat on the back to watch over the slumbering skeleton.

“Thanks for helping us.” Miranda said as soon as she entered, proceeding to buckle up too.

“Nah, don’t mention it. You are my friend too after all, aren’t you, girly?” He said, partially as friendly banter, but secretly also partially serious. 

Even though his tone had been playful, Miranda stopped to consider his words carefully. She always took these matters seriously which is also what would make her a great friend. She was always so caring towards others if she let herself get close to them. He hadn’t noticed it on her before. Not his fault, or at least not completely. She never went out of her way to socialize with anyone and dodged most of everyone’s attempts at it. Nedd couldn’t help but wonder if she would even have gotten as friendly with the monsters as she had if she hadn’t been forced to stay at the compound.What would have happened had the guys that attacked her not gone after her at all? 

Well for starters they would be free to do as they liked on the streets, though as far as he heard they weren’t anywhere near as committed to monster hating as the other three. They mainly went along with their ‘leaders’. They were just hired muscle. Word was that they had gained a fair amount of respect for Miranda, actually, which wasn’t something that kind of ‘hired help’ gave out easily.

But as far as Miranda was concerned… would she have gotten that close to the others? One had to wonder…

“Yes.” She said, snapping him out of his line of thought. “Yes, we’re friends.”

That… was surprising. Was she finally opening up to him? How did that happen? Not that was going to complain about it, though.

“See? No reason to thank me for it.” He recovered quickly. “So, how’s your skelebae, over there.”

“Not my skelebae and he seems to have passed out from overexertion. He really needs to catch some Zs. I’m going to have to tell the others to let him sleep in the mornings.”

“That’s very caring of you.”

“I’m not sure he is going to sleep that well, though.” The sentence was uttered more to herself than to him.

There was a slight frown on her face, as she seemed to ponder on something.

“Why’s that?” He couldn’t help but ask.

“Oh?” She noticed she had talked too loudly. “I’m not sure I-”

= **The Cueball has nightmares. He might wake up several times at night, that being the reason why he is so extra tired.** =

“Raj, you aren’t supposed to reveal that sort of information about other people! That’s private!”

= **Yeah, yeah. Sorry and all that.** = Rajani didn’t seem sorry at all. = **But it’s not as if Nedd wouldn’t learn all that from Undyne and Alphys if he asked, you know?** =

“True.” Both Nedd and Miranda admitted at the same time, him with glee and her with reluctant acceptance.

The trip was filled with light banter as Nedd tried to think up how to get her to talk about her feelings. She wasn’t likely to do it with Sans in the car, even with him passed out. When he had gotten along with Undyne’s plan he hadn’t expected that she’d react to strongly and adversely to the situation. He had thought that, since Undyne knew her better, that her strategy was fool proof. Now he could see that she needed some tactfully applied nudging into her feelings, not a strong shove.

How had Undyne missed that, anyway?

For now, he was limited to testing her limits in a workplace environment before he could actually start the nudging.

A distressed sound from the backseat silenced the both of them and Nedd slowed the car down.

“What’s wrong?” He asked just as Miranda unbuckled her seat belt and started trying to slink into the back seat without disturbing his driving.

= **Nightmare. The one we told you about.** = Rajani explained. 

Miranda finally managed to squeeze her way towards Sans and took hold of him, hugging him and singing a lullaby of sorts. Ever so slowly, the sweaty, distressed frown Sans was sporting began to ease up and his arms somehow wound up pulling Miranda to him. With a cocked brow he looked up at Rajani.

= **He’s very clingy in his sleep.** = She explained.

“Whatever you say, Jani.”

“Physical comfort seems to make it better. I don’t mind… for now.” Miranda admitted with a slight blush tinging her cheeks.

“So, he has gotten clingy before, has he?” He teased.

Miranda could only blush at his statement and pretend she hadn’t heard him. That face couldn’t lie, though.

“I don’t see why you are so opposed to starting a relationship with him, girly.” He started. “You are good both ‘for’ and ‘to’ him. He’s good to and for you too. I would kill to have that sort of chemistry with my ex-wife and I can’t help but be surprised at how you repudiate it so easily.” He admitted.

He expected some backlash from her for it. Usually Miranda detested when he spoke of his ‘shipping’ of them two. Instead she remained silent and he couldn’t help but take a peek through the front mirror to see if she was even awake at all.

She was. She was watching him with such intensity that he couldn’t help but be surprised. He had never seen Miranda exhibit that kind of intensity before. He knew then that she was reading him. Or at least trying to. He was far too good at faking it until making it to be so easily read, after all. She might sense somethings out of him, but not all of it. And it was better that way.

He decided it was best to remain quiet. He didn’t know why he kept bringing up his ex-wife. It was the past and there was nothing to do to change it. In fact, he was better off without her. He still didn’t understand why their relationship had failed so hard… maybe that was why. It hadn’t logical. He was great at logical reasoning so he should know. It was why he was so confounded that Miranda kept skirting away from a relationship with Sans the way she was doing.

“There…” Miranda started and then hesitated, as if unsure she should say anything at all. “There are things more important than chemistry between two people. My life as is right now… doesn’t make for a healthy basis for a relationship. It’s why I’m not interested in starting one. As for your ex-wife… I can’t begin to tell you what went wrong. I wasn’t there, after all. But every couple is different so you shouldn’t base your expectations on other couples. Perhaps it was a lack of chemistry, but perhaps it was something else.” She said slowly as if afraid he was going to take her advice the wrong way. “I also don’t understand why you are so invested in trying to get me and Sans into a relationship. I’ve been in relationships before. I’ve been in one that was based only on other people wanting me and a guy together. I was hated by his friends when I realized it was harming both of us more than it did us any good and broke things off. I’ve also been in a relationship where I loved a guy and worked my hardest to make it work but… it was a one-sided effort. Still, I believed him when he told me he loved me. I believed him when he said he wanted that relationship and he used that to bring me down mentally. I guess it’s not a secret between friends that I almost died because of it. Being so invested in shipping me with someone, it was only a matter of time before Undyne and Alphys told you that, anyway. I don’t know if any of these situations could be applied to you too but they are all I have. Both of them already made me reluctant enough on participating in the whole romance shtick back then and my live was sort of normal at the time. As things are right now… I really can’t afford a relationship.”

Nedd had never suspected any of those things. His sources of information hadn’t told him any of that. He also doubted Undyne and Alphys would have told him about her insinuated suicide attempt, even if he had asked, but perhaps her trust in their discretion had diminished with their latest ‘prank’.

Still, those were some pretty heavy things for her to reveal. It still didn’t fully explain why she was so repulsed by the idea of forming a relationship with Sans, but it explained some. Perhaps… it had something to do with… yeah, that was probably it. How could he be so blind? She’d been homeless, after all. Still, she was holding back unnecessarily. He could understand why, but… She wouldn’t live forever. Neither would Sans. Why not just enjoy life to the fullest while she could?

“Are you afraid that Sans would do something like that to you?” He pressed a bit, even more determined on getting her a happy ending. She deserved one, after all. Now more than ever.

“What!? No!?” She said, her expression looking like she had just witnessed him kicking a three-limbed puppy mercilessly. “Why would you even think that!?”

“I’m just trying to understand. If you aren’t afraid that Sans will do something like that then what gives!?”

“Nedd! I just said-”

“That you couldn’t afford to right now.” He finished. “But honestly, that’s plain bullshit in my opinion. I’ll stop being the ‘shipper guy’ for a moment just to reason with you, if that makes you feel better. You already have a great relationship with the guy and it’s undeniable that there is some chemistry. You are also single and don’t seem to have feelings for anyone other than Sans when it comes to romance.”

“I don’t have romantic feelings for Sans!” Miranda interrupted.

“I would say bullshit to that but if it makes you feel better let’s make this a hypothetical scenario. Imagine that you do have them. Even with your past romantic failures I don’t see any reason not to go through with it. Those are in the past and they should stay that way. Sure, you can take some wisdom from them but you don’t have to let every single aspect of them color any new relationship you might hypothetically start with Sans. As for how things are right now: I’m not exactly sure why you think there’s anything barring you from having a relationship. I’m not that close to you. But Sans is and, so far, he is sticking around you.”

“Sans doesn’t have feelings for me, though.” She interrupted again.

“Has he told you so?” Nedd stopped in his tracks to confirm it.

“Well… no.”

“Then don’t speak for him what his feelings are. Only he knows what they are and he might even be in as much denial as I suspect you are. Unless he actually told you what he is feeling then it isn’t cannon!”

“But then why isn’t what I told you cannon?” She insisted.

Smart girl. Not smart enough, though.

“Because every single thing you claim seems to be centered around you not being able to afford a relationship right now and, if that’s the sort of mentality you have, then of course you won’t even consider the chance of having a relationship, let alone how you are actually feeling! Tell me something believable on why you won’t consider having a relationship with Sans that isn’t based on current circumstances or on your perception of his feelings or anything outside of you and then I might give you the benefit of the doubt. I won’t believe you because I’ve seen how you act around him, but at least I’ll actually take it into account.” Nedd quickly changed back to the topic at hand. “But back to my original point. If you hypothetically have feelings for him and let’s keep Sans’ feelings as an unknown variable just for the sake of realism, even with your past relationships being the way they were, even with whatever state of living that you currently are in -but that probably has to do with why you were homeless before you were taken into the compound for safe keeping in the first place- I don’t see why you can’t have a relationship with him. Girly, like it or not, life is short. You won’t live forever. Neither will he. You never know when disaster will take one of you. So, I ask you, would you be ok if you died with things the way they are. Would you be ok if he was the one doing the dying? Are you sure you wouldn’t have had any regrets like actually confessing your feelings to him? And imagining he did like you! What if he took all the things you said as a rejection and decided to move on just because you were too afraid? Would you really be ok with him starting a new relationship with someone else?”

“Nedd…” She sighed in resignation and he knew she was still not taking him seriously. “Those are a lot of hypotheticals. Too many ‘what ifs’. And it’s all based solely on me actually having feelings for him. Now, I won’t deny that I’m his friend and that I trust him a lot. I also won’t deny that I’m attracted to him. But that doesn’t mean I’m in love with him either. And I understand it can be frustrating seeing to people who ‘have it all’ to have a good, stable relationship and them being just friends. I mean, if they can’t have a stable, healthy relationship then what chance do you have, right? I’ve had a lot of people saying that about me and Daniel before. They put so much stock and hope on our relationship working despite everything, but they had no idea how much strain I was under just to keep it afloat. Appearances aren’t everything, Nedd. Just because we appear to be ‘tailor made to each other’ like you seem to think we are it doesn’t mean that it’s the truth. I appreciate your concern. I really do. But it really isn’t like that at all.” She said.

What a load of bullshit. She hadn’t even given anything of what he said any real thought. She had merely waited until he was done talking and went right back to the same litany.

Many would consider this a failure. Not Nedd, though. With her little speech he managed to uncover more of her personality and state of being. He now understood why Undyne and Alphys kept failing. Miranda would stone wall anyone who tried the directly approach with her. She constantly had her defenses up when it came to that topic. Nedd would have to sneak the knowledge of her true feelings past her defenses somehow. He just didn’t know how to do it yet. 

One thing was for sure: his shipping would become almost non-existent. Keeping up with it after this serious conversation would just make her shut him out and she had just opened up to him. She was basically giving him a chance of proving himself trustworthy when it came to her self-perceived feelings. She might not even realize that she was doing it, but she was. And Nedd would honor it for what is was.

“I still don’t believe you completely, but I will stop bugging you so much about it. I’m still going to tease you, though, just because you get so flustered about it. Don’t even tell me to stop it. Undyne tells me you do it to Sans because you think it’s adorable so, unless you plan on stopping that too, you’d be a hypocrite if you demanded me to do it.” Nedd finished.

She grumbled a bit at him having cornered her like that.

“Fiiiiine.” She said at last.

“Good. See you tomorrow, girly!” He said and she looked around surprised. Had she really not noticed they had arrived at the compound during the conversation?

“Good night, Nedd.” She said, unbuckling Sans and clumsily exiting the car with him still firmly attached to her.

“Do you need any help?”

“No, I can take it from here.”

“Ok. Good night!”

“Good night!” She said.

= **Bye, Neddynerd!** = Rajani added.

She had been mostly absent of the conversation but it seemed that, even if Miranda had put no stock on it, she greatly disliked his insinuations, given her sudden nickname. Some might even consider it slightly offensive. Not Nedd, though. He would have to have a serious conversation with Rajani some time. He needed to see where she stood on this.

For now, he would just go home. He deserved some rest after all of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... do you like him or do you like him?  
> Nedd's such a great guy.


	56. Chapter 55: Until You Come And Sit A While With Me

You woke up feeling still somewhat tired, like the amount of sleep you had still wasn’t enough. It didn’t surprise you in the least. You had been working overtime, mostly because Sans was also working overtime. It had been a few days since Sans passed out from exhaustion and it was now December, yet Sans still refused to let off on the extra hours. You had managed to convince everyone to let him sleep in in the mornings. 

At first, he seemed a bit exasperated at your meddling. He didn’t show it outwardly. It was more one of those little things you had come to notice about him that probably only Papyrus noticed as well. He really didn’t like being taken care of. He was far too used to do the caring.

Still, even if he didn’t like being ‘babied’, he also seemed to appreciate your concern as well as having more time to sleep. He started doing little things as a way of thanks. You started finding several items from the McCafe in places you used often. They always sported little notes in them. They never identified who left the pastries there, and they certainly never identified who it was for, which still managed to mind boggle you why no one else had taken it instead. Still, you were pretty sure it was Sans who had done it.

‘Why?’ One might ask. Simple. He mostly left behind brownies. But, even when he didn’t leave brownies, there was something that was always there in the notes: Puns. Lots and lots of puns.

Things like ‘you keep scoring brownie points with me.’ and ‘don’t be choco-LATE for work.’ kept showing up. It led to you admitting in front of the culprit that is was pretty sweet of him. And you totally imagined the blue sheen to his cheeks that followed you comment.

It still didn’t completely make up for both of your lack of sleep, though. Perhaps when you aren’t so sleep deprived you could write back some notes for him? Right now, you are too tired to come up with anything witty or funny.

Aside from Sans related tomfoolery, there were some other noteworthy things. Nedd had definitely toned down on his shipping. You wouldn’t believe for a second that he had completely given up on it, but for now he seemed to respect your boundaries, even if he didn’t believe you. He was actually a nice guy to befriend, all in all.

The other thing was that MK was gone from the compound and had moved in with the scale duo. It was just a couple of days ago… you missed him already. Things simply weren’t the same without him here. A lot less lively.

Not that there weren’t more than enough situations that made your day lively as it was. Frisk, Flowey and even Papyrus, sometimes, were always making things hectic one way one another. But then at times Frisk would leave to visit MK and the house simply wasn’t as lively as before. 

You hadn’t seen much of Undyne and Alphys either, as much as they wanted to, if just for the sake of continuous shipping. Part of you didn’t regret not seeing them because of said shipping… But part of you also considered them your friends and you wanted to hang out with them regardless.

That being said, you hadn’t expected for the scale duo to show up on the front door of the compound after lunch, just as you were getting ready to go out for gift shopping.

“What’s up, punk! Let’s go SHOPPING!

Rajani took one look at them in her robotic body.

= **So… you want me to go, right?** = She asked. It wasn’t supposed for her to go initially, preferring to stay at home playing a game or something.

“Please.” Was your feeble response.

The scale duo had MK with them, and he greeted you effusively before dashing off to go play with Frisk. He hadn’t been gone for more than a second when Undyne swept you off your feet in a completely literal and platonic manner, and dashed off with you as Alphys scampered after her with haste. You were tossed into the back seat of an unfamiliar car and both women got on the front seats with Undyne on the driver’s side.

They had just buckled their seats when Papyrus showed up at the door.

“SKINNY HUMAN, I WAS WONDERING IF I COULD JOIN YOU IN- OH! WHERE DID SHE GO?” He asked in a confused manner.

“We’re taking her with us, punk!” Undyne shouted out of the car window. “See ya when we get back!”

And with that she sped off as you heard a distant ‘WAIT! I WANT TO COME TOO!’. You recomposed from your attempted kidnapping and you head snapped towards the sound knocking on the car window. It was Rajani that had been left outside for some reason. You rushed to pull down the glass. Rajbot flew in and practically collapsed down on the cushioning insides of the car as you closed the window again.

= **What’s up the sudden kidnapping, you crazy bitches!** =

“Rajani! Don’t call them that!”

= **Fuck that! They didn’t even properly greet us before dashing off with you! I had to speed up to the velocity of the car just to be able to catch up with you! This body isn’t made for speeds this high! What else am I supposed to call them? Pretty little Angels?!** =

“If this was a real kidnapping we would be so dead…”

“Not if you trained with me more often, punk!” Undyne butted in.

Due to a slurry of half-baked excuses, serious grievances and a rushed wedding you had somehow managed to remain mostly under Undyne’s radar. Not that she hadn’t cornered you sometimes, because she had, but those had been very few when compared to what your ‘dodging skills’ had let you escape.

Still, she had a point. You hadn’t forgotten that there was now a chance for the organization to come looking for you and actually find you. It was still a very slim chance, since all Alphys was doing was getting all the documentation and experiments ready for you, but the moment you actually started going there…? Then you would have to be extra careful.

Still, you weren’t sure how the hell Undyne would manage to train you. even when you lived together she didn’t get much time to do it, let alone now. But it was necessary.

“Ok.” You said a bit resignedly.

“Good!” She nodded. “Now for what we really want to talk about!”

“Oh, boy.” You had a pretty good guess over what it was.

“S-so… h-how was your day being t-tied to Sans?” Alphys continued.

“It was as horribly as expected.” You said.

“Nah, don’t believe you!” Undyne said.

“Undyne… have had to take a shit with Alphys standing right beside you?” You ask her.

“Erm…”

“Yeah. Didn’t think so.”

“I w-was actually asking ab-bout this.” Alphys pulled out her phone and, with a few motions, presented you with a picture of you as Sans entangled together in bed, clearly unconscious. 

Thankfully the covers disguised the fact that you had your leg completely around his hips, but your uncovered torsos were plenty of visible. The point of view was considerably low which meant one of the kids. MK didn’t have arms, Flowey would have refused to be dragged into such monkeyshines so that only left Frisk as the culprit, especially since they already were part of the shipping club themselves.

“I won’t be held accountable by the positions my body finds itself into while I’m asleep. Once my sis woke up to me ramming my head against the headboard of the bed several times while asleep, back when we still shared a bedroom. I can say with all certainty that I wouldn’t have done that while awake.” You told them.

“You didn’t!” Undyne accused but, when you kept your deadpan expression, asked. “…did you?”

“Yup. Just ask my sister. Y-you know. When she wakes up? … If she wakes up…”

“I-I-I’m going t-to do my best! I p-promise!” Alphys guaranteed.

“Thanks, Alphs.”

“By the way! What was that thing I heard about you snapping at a bitch for being mean to Sans?” Undyne asked.

“W-well…” It was your turn to stammer. “Me and Sans had had just been talking and what not and she asked me how I could stand to be, and I quote, ‘near that disgusting thing’. It tried to ignore her and tune her out but she kept badgering and demanding a reply. And she was being so god awful about it!” You were starting to simmer again just by remembering it.

= **Ok, you did overreact some, all things considered, which is usually my job. But the bitch was annoying as fuck and just wouldn’t stop.** =

“I… guess I really did start the conversation ready for a fight.” You admit. “It’s usually you who does that, Rajani. I don’t know what I was thinking. I usually give people the benefit of the doubt… Like her having pure ignorance and perhaps stop being so stupid after I elucidate her… but not after what she said to Sans.”

“It’s ok. I probably would have reacted even more harshly than you did. There’s NO WAY anyone is going to call one my friends and family a ‘disgusting thing’!” Undyne protested.

= **I don’t think anyone would dare with you around. You are positively intimidating with all those bulging fish muscles.** = Rajani offhandedly commented.

“What worries me is that Sans didn’t even flinch… as if that’s regular behavior from his coworkers. Perhaps a bit harsher than usual, but still the same thing as always.” You commented. “Which is odd because, though I sensed an underlying unease from them, no one actually said anything while I was there. Heck, some were clear cases of not knowing how to approach people in general.”

“So… what did you exactly do to her?” Undyne pressed for more. “I asked Nedd who only knew a little from Rajani so I don’t really know what happened.”

“I gave her some attitude right back.” You admitted a bit shyly. “At first I acted like I hadn’t heard her which only pissed her off. When she wouldn’t bug off I pretended to Sans that I was hearing things that weren’t there and that pissed her off even more. then I told her to leave the grownups to talk while calling her an infant. Things escalated from there and when she started cussing at me is when I put an end to it by scolding her like a misbehaved child.”

“How old was she, anyway.”

“According to her? Nineteen. If it weren’t for the minimum age allowed for work being sixteen I would have thought she was even younger by the way she was acting. Heck, Frisk, who is but eleven, acts much more maturely than she did! Even Flowey, of all people, acts older than she was acting. It was like talking to a bumbling spoiled toddler who throws a snit over having too many toys but not that one toy they really, really wanted!”

“You are r-really getting-fired up.” Alphys noted.

“Urgh! It’s just! Sans is working so hard already! He hardly even sleeps. The other day he collapsed in the locker room! I was so worried when he didn’t show up…”

“Oh, we know about that!” Undyne said.

“What? Oh, Nedd told you.” 

“B-better than t-that, r-really.” Alphys pulled up her phone and showed you a photo of you carrying Sans bride style as you exited the restaurant, Rajbot floating above one of your shoulders. 

“Really!? That bastard!”

“I improved it…” Alphys changed to the next image.

You, Sans and Rajani were in the same position but everything else was different. On the background was a massive explosion and Alphys had added Dirk-Style Shades to your face in an attempt to make you look badass, like you were rescuing a damsel-ed skeleton from said explosion and walking slowly away like in the action movies. Some of the shading was off but not a bad attempt for someone who clearly didn’t use photoshop or any other similar program.

“Not a bad first attempt at image editing.” You merely commented. Part of you wanted to use it as a wallpaper for your phone just for the fun factor of it. She did like to look badass.

That clearly wasn’t the reaction they wanted but made no comments.

“So, have you decided what you are going to buy everyone yet, punk?” Undyne asked.

“Mostly. There are some gifts I still don’t know for sure and I might browse for a bit.” You replied. “Did you like my wedding gift, by the way?” You asked with a sly smile.

“Y-your w-wed-” Alphys blushed hard and choked on her own words.

“HECK YEAH, WE DID! And that’s all I’m going to say on it!” Undyne commented.

She was no longer as easily embarrassed at talking about sex with you. It gave you less ammunition when trying to circumvent shipping but it also made you happy because it meant she felt comfortable enough to banter with you about it. Well… that or she was spending way too much time talking to Nedd and his constant innuendos desensitized her.

Alphys still wasn’t comfortable enough though, and Undyne couldn’t help but gush at her wife’s embarrassed expressions. 

It took you no time to reach the shopping center, but it did take you some time to find a parking spot. It seemed there were a lot of people doing the same as you were doing.

“So… Where to, first?” Undyne asked.

“I have something that is supposed to arrive today at the house appliance’s store.” You told her. 

“Wait, you actually ordered something in advance?”

“Well, yeah, it’s not exactly the sort of stuff they commonly have all of the time at the store since there usually aren’t many requests for it.”

“W-what is it ex-xactly?” Alphys questioned.

“Nosy much?” You teased.

“W-w-w-w-well…”

“Just kidding. I don’t really mind telling you… so long as you don’t tell Papyrus, that is.”

“It’s Papyrus’ gift?”

“Yup.”

“What is it?”

“Come with me and you’ll see.”

They escorted you to the store where you were informed your appliance had arrived. As soon as the two women had laid eyes on it they couldn’t stop gushing at how perfect of a gift it was for the tall skeleton. You asked the clerk if he wouldn’t mind wrapping it up in paper for you and he complied.

You proceeded to visit and browse several stores, scanning for gift-worthy objects. Unfortunately, the duo kept such a tight watch on you that you couldn’t get them their gifts. You did ask Rajani to go back to those stores while you distracted the married couple to reserve the things you had in mind for them. You would return the next day to retrieve them.

They didn’t seem to take notice of Rajani’s sudden absence. They did take notice of other things, though.

“W-where’s Sans’ g-gift?” Alphys asked suddenly.

“Wuh!?” You started confused, since up until then you had been discussing what food to eat as a midafternoon meal.

“Sans. You d-didn’t buy a g-gift for him yet.” Alphys repeated.

“Oh! Yeah, I haven’t. But I haven’t bought for you either so what’s the problem? I’ll just return tomorrow.”

“No can do, punk. We can’t have you forgoing your significant other!” Undyne insisted.

“Do. Not. Start!” You warned them.

You knew it was a vain attempt. They wouldn’t listen. You knew that if you wanted to get free of this topic you would need a lot of maneuvering.

…

This was going to be a long after noon.

 

***

 

\--Papyrus’ POV--

Papyrus couldn’t help but feel disheartened at seeing Miranda being whisked away by his best friend without him tagging along. 

He knew that Miranda would be going gift shopping alone that day and he’d wanted to spend some quality time with her. He hadn’t been able to do that for a while, recently. Work had started taking a lot of his time, not that he minded. 

In fact, he was quite happy that his co-workers seemed to enjoy his puzzle making skills. He was constantly asked to come up with clever puzzles for newspapers, videogames, tv shows and so on. His company capitalized on puzzle making skills this way. They were basically freelancing. Sure, there were game developers that were more than capable of thinking up their own puzzles, but some of them wanted to pump out games faster and didn’t reserve a lot of time to think of puzzles, being more concerned with story boarding the game and making it attractive for the general population. Newspapers didn’t really spend a lot of time thinking up on the next edition’s puzzles either and would at times repeat puzzles from other sources. As for the TV shows that requested them… well, Papyrus had never gotten a chance to work for one but… he supposed there were just so many things to be concerned with that there wasn’t enough time to think up clever and not overdone puzzles?

Either way, it didn’t really matter why they couldn’t come up with their own puzzles so long as they needed Papyrus to do it for them. He was getting quite a name for himself even within the company itself, if he said so himself. Which he did.

That being said, it wasn’t that he resented spending so much time working because not only was he being valued by his work, but because it was also work he loved doing, but he still missed his skinny human friend. Well… she wasn’t quite so skinny anymore. Papyrus would have to find another differentiation for her soon. 

He guessed he could always call her by her name, but he had read somewhere before that a good way to make friends was to give them nicknames. Though that hadn’t been his intention when it came to Frisk initially, before learning their name, that was something he intended to do right now. That brought to mind that he never really addressed Undyne as anything other than her name… Well, she was still his teacher. One should always show respect for their superiors, that being why he never bothered to find a nickname for neither her nor the king. 

Be that as it may be, he had come to realize that Miranda always seemed particularly concerned for him whenever he used her real name, though he understood why. When it came to him being concerned he’d completely forego the whole nickname thing.

With a resigned sigh, he went back inside the mansion trying to come up with a constructive way of spending his day off. A muffled sound came from the stairs and he noticed Sans had finally gotten up from bed. He’d even skipped lunch, though Papyrus was sure that the food was still warm enough so as not to need re-heating.

He’d been letting Sans sleep the morning away at Miranda’s request. He’d been a bit hesitant, not wanting Sans to acquire bad sleeping habits, but seeing that he’d completely collapsed at his work place, Papyrus couldn’t help but to admit she was right. 

Sans entered the hallway still dragging his feet and looking a bit sleepy, but far more well rested than he had the week before.

“GOOD AFTERNOON, BROTHER! DID YOU SLEEP WELL?” He asked, feeling just a tiny bit worried at the still sleepy look his brother sported.

“uh? oh. heya, paps. g’morning.” Was his reply.

“IT’S AFTERNOON, BROTHER.” He corrected. 

He tried not to feel upset with his brother’s sleeping habits but he couldn’t help but resent how hard his brother worked for so little pay. He could understand why they couldn’t just use all the gold they still had from the underground. Asgore, Frisk and Dan had already explained all about how overflowing the market with all the gold in one go would drop its value and that converting it by small amounts would turn out much better in the end. Still, he couldn’t help but feel impatient over how long that would take and how little gold could be converted at a time because of how many monsters were out there.

If only it could have all been converted at once, perhaps his brother wouldn’t spend so much time stressing over jobs that didn’t treat him right and payed so little. While it was good to know that his brother was actually working for once, Papyrus had come to hate how haggard he would look sometimes. 

Things had changed a bit with Miranda’s arrival at the compound. When she started reading to them, Sans had no other choice but to go to bed early. Somehow his brother seemed to sleep much better when he wasn’t sleeping alone. However, Papyrus knew that if he asked him directly, his brother would tell him there was no need for concern. Papyrus had considered asking Miranda to make him sleep with her instead but knew very well why that wouldn’t work. Well… the asking part anyway. Once they were actually forced to be together, like when Undyne had made it so that they were linked together by magic, they would both sleep very soundly. His brother sure had been very well rested the day after and so had Miranda.

Still, he knew perfectly why asking her wasn’t an option.

The great Papyrus was no fool, after all.

It had been pretty easy to pick up on how his best friend and her then girlfriend seemed to want to get Miranda together with either him or his brother. True, at the time he hadn’t though much of it. He hadn’t liked it, sure. As far as he was concerned, he just couldn’t think of Miranda in that manner. He had also given little thought to pairing her up with Sans. As far as he was concerned back then, those two scale covered women would try to pair up just about anyone. It also helped that he was more concerned with the women’s traps to get him to do romantic stuff with his friend and then Undyne’s proposal preparations.

It wasn’t until later that he realized…

When he found out that those two were also ‘shipping’ her with his brother he’d been pretty quick to assure her that his brother held no such feelings towards her either, just the same as him. But he couldn’t have been more wrong…

When she’d put on that ‘show’ to distract Alphys from going up the stairs… He’d played along thinking nothing of it. Perhaps he was looking forward to fluster Sans by revealing that yes, he knew what sex was. Maybe even a little bit by she outright throwing herself at him? But then he looked more closely at his brother’s facial expression and realized…

His brother was far too flustered to not have any feelings behind it.

Papyrus played it cool. He was very great, after all, and he could easily tell that his brother either didn’t know what he was feeling just yet or didn’t want to tell Miranda about it. Back then it had been just a sudden suspicion but further observation had proved to him that his first gut feeling had been right after all. 

If there was anyone who knew Sans better than Sans himself, that person was the Great Papyrus. There was no way he wouldn’t have realized his brother was feeling something for Miranda. Still, because his brother had the tendency of refusing to talk about anything about himself, Papyrus had decided not to approach him about it.

He’d taken to trying to observe Miranda as well. He’d begun to think that she might feel something for his brother too.

And then she had gone and denied feeling anything for him to Sans face!

That must have been a hard blow for Sans, but he kept trying to act normal. It helped that Miranda did her darned best to make sure he was ok, even though she probably still didn’t know about Sans’ feelings. At least… Papyrus hoped she didn’t. He still wanted to believe that she told Sans she didn’t have feelings for him because she didn’t know about his and didn’t want him to find out hers were mutual. A little convoluted, he admitted, but he really would like to one day call her sister. 

That being said, if it turned out she really didn’t have feelings for Sans, Papyrus couldn’t exactly blame her for it, thought he would be a bit sad. No one could force themselves to have feelings for other people, after all. 

That being said, he really wanted to know how she felt. Not by asking her directly. Undyne and Alphys had tried that already and she would probably deny it with all her might, if just on principle and nothing more. No, he would try to see her instinctive reactions. So far, her reactions all indicated she, at the very least, cared for Sans greatly, always making sure he was healthy and helping him anyway she could.

But did she love him?

Papyrus really wouldn’t be sure of it unless he had some privacy with her. Miranda seemed greatly hesitant on opening up when other people were around, especially Undyne and her wife. Papyrus couldn’t exactly blame her for it either. Those two had a way of taking her words and twist them into meaning whatever they wanted them to mean for their pairing-up-people’s agenda. 

Miranda did open up with him at times, but the two of them had to be alone. He guessed that, because he opened up to her, she felt it easier to open up to him. The only person she seemed to open up more with was Sans and, though Papyrus knew he still kept a lot of things hidden, he knew his brother had come to open up a lot to her too. 

Once again, Papyrus didn’t resent that fact. Actually, he was more relieved than anything else. He knew his brother didn’t hide things from him to be hurtful of because he felt he couldn’t trust him. He knew Sans thought he was protecting him by not saying anything. That thought gave some sort of comfort to his brother and Papyrus didn’t want to take that away from him. It still hurt at times that his own brother felt he couldn’t talk to him about whatever it was but he didn’t hate it. This was something Papyrus couldn’t do for Sans, so he appreciated that Miranda seemed to gladly fill that role. Even if she was to remain as just friends with his brother he wouldn’t mind because he knew she would still stick by him like she’d been doing so far.

But Papyrus was selfish, if only for a tiny bit. He couldn’t help but hope that she would love his brother back. Sans deserved someone who made him see the best in himself. Someone who showed him that there was something worth it out here after so long of giving up on absolutely everything and simply going with the flow because he had no other choice.

Sans had improved after being in the surface for six months, but he still wasn’t the same skeleton from before he rushed their move from Hotland to Snowdin so suddenly. It wasn’t until she entered their lives that Papyrus began to see hints of his old self coming back. 

He was even beginning to feel interested in science again! In just the time span of around three months she had managed to help him improve so much! 

And she was so kind and thoughtful and selfless… It was no wonder his brother had fallen head over heels for her. And Papyrus couldn’t help but want for his brother to become even happier by she returning his feelings. It also didn’t hurt in the least that, by doing so, she would become even more of a sister than she already was right now.

Be that as it may, Papyrus completely missed the opportunity to have a long overdue conversation with her. He hadn’t had the time to actually talk to Miranda in a while after all. It didn’t even have to be about Sans, though that was one of his focuses. 

But he admitted that Undyne and Alphys probably missed her too. Miranda wasn’t just entertainment for them, after all. She was their friend too. So, he had to resign to his luck, of lack thereof.

“everything alright, paps?” Sans asked from behind him.

He’d been so immersed in his own thoughts he hadn’t even noticed Sans returning from the kitchen, his meal finished, and got startled by his voice. He… he was not proud of the shamelessly girlish and childish squeak he released with the scare…

“hei, uh, are you ok, paps?” Sans asked, just as surprised by the sound as Papyrus had been.

“L-LET’S NOT MENTION WHAT JUST HAPPENED EVER AGAIN, OK?” He requested his brother.

“dunno, paps. it was just too adorable to not mention.” Sans teased with a wicked grin, now that he’d recovered from it.

“SANS!”

“i'm just kidding. just kidding, i promise.” He reassured him with placating gestures.

“GOOD, BECAUSE I NEED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT SOMETHING SERIOUS.”

Sans hesitated a bit at that with a confused frown. He seemed unsure whether he should make an excuse to avoid the conversation or stick around.

“’bout what, paps?” He asked, curious enough not to run right there and then.

“IT’S ABOUT… FEELINGS OF THE PASSIONATE SORT.” Papyrus admitted.

He knew Sans would assume the feelings being discussed would be Papyrus’ and would want to stick around for that. It was a shameful tactic but it at least would keep Sans from bolting before he got to talk to him.

“so... who’s the lucky lady or gentleman?” Sans inquired.

“W-WELL… I WANTED TO TALK ABOUT MIRANDA, ACTUALLY.”

He saw a shadow fall on his brother’s face and quickly realized how his sentence might be misinterpreted.

“sorry to say, paps, but…” Sans started looking both conflicted about hurting his brother with assumed rejection and also about his own feelings for the woman in question.

“I KNOW SHE ONLY THINKS OF ME AS A BROTHER! I FEEL THE SAME FOR HER TOO, ONLY AS ‘SISTER’ INSTEAD OF ‘BROTHER’. I MEANT TO TALK ABOUT YOUR LOVE FOR HER, NOT MINE!” papyrus corrected himself.

“o-oh!” Sans commented. It took a moment for him to fully grasp what Papyrus had meant. “w-wait! i don’t-”

“DON’T BOTHER TRYING TO DENY IT, BROTHER. I’VE KNOW IT FOR A WHILE NOW.” Papyrus interrupted him before he could tell yet another lie. “I THINK YOU SHOULD TELL HER HOW YOU FEEL.”

“paps, she doesn’t feel that way about me.” Sans said, his usual relaxed mask falling apart to a sad and resigned expression.

“THAT MIGHT BE TRUE, BUT IT’S NOT GOOD FOR YOU TO KEEP ALL THOSE FEELINGS IN. YOU SHOULD REALLY BE HONEST WITH HER ABOUT IT.” Papyrus said.

Though he still hoped she denied feeling anything for Sans because she was unaware of his feelings being mutual, Papyrus also knew that, if she really had been telling the truth, it would still be far better to have that fact revealed up front for both parties in general rather than his brother bottling it up. 

“i don’t really see the point in doing that, paps.” Sans said, for once actually opening up about something to him.

He must really be desperate enough from all of his faking to confide in him after all this time.

“SANS… I SAW HOW YOU LOOKED WHEN YOU RETURNED FROM RENTING MOVIES WITH HER. YOU’RE GOOD AT PRETENDING EVERYTHING IS FINE, BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO DECEIVE ME. I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AFTER ALL. IF SHE KNEW OF YOUR FEELINGS SHE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE AVOIDED BEING SO BLUNT ON HER DENIAL.” Papyrus explained. “AND I KNOW FOR SURE SHE NOTICED YOU WEREN’T FEELING ALL TOO GREAT.”

“she did? how do you know?” Sans asked, looking a bit panicked at the mere idea she might be onto him.

“SHE ASKED ME A FEW TIMES IF YOU WERE OK. SHE TRIED TO ASK IT IN A CASUAL MANNER BUT IT WAS OBVIOUS SHE WAS WORRIED. I TOLD HER YOU WERE AND SHE EVENTUALLY CONVINCED HERSELF THAT SHE MUST HAVE BEEN IMAGINING THINGS.” He told him hesitatingly, not wanting to make his brother panic even more. “SHE NO LONGER SUSPECTS ANYTHING OF THE SORT BUT… IT REALLY WOULD BE BETTER FOR YOU TO COME CLEAN WITH HER.”

“i… i'm not too sure about that, paps.” Sans said nervously.

“SHE ALREADY HURT YOU ONCE WITHOUT MEANING TO JUST BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T KNOW HOW YOU FEEL. AND YOU AREN’T FARING THAT WELL WITH KEEPING YOUR FEELINGS A SECRET EITHER. IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TME BEFORE SHE HURTS YOU ACCIDENTALLY AGAIN OR THE STRESS OF CONSTANTLY HIDING GETS TO YOU. BESIDES, YOU ALREADY HAVE THE ‘NO’ FROM HER. WHAT DO YOU EVEN STILL HAVE TO LOSE BY TELLING HER? NOTHING. IF ANYTHING, YOU ONLY HAVE TO GAIN FROM IT! SHE’D UNDERSTAND. I’M SURE SHE WOULD TRY HER HARDEST NOT TO MAKE YOU FEEL HURT AND TO HAVE YOU MORE COMFORTABLE AROUND HER.”

“that’s what i'm afraid of. i don’t want her to feel compelled to change on my account. i like how carefree she is with me right now. how open. if i told her, she would start acting more careful around me… like i'm made of glass or something.” Sans explained. “that would hurt me a lot more than anything else.”

“BROTHER… I DON’T THINK YOU ARE GIVING HER ENOUGH CREDIT THERE… BUT I UNDERSTAND. I SUPOSE THAT, AS GREAT AS I AM, EVEN I WOULD FEEL THAT WAY IF I WERE ON YOUR PLACE.” He admitted, understanding his reasons.

“thank you for worrying, bro. really. but i'm fine.” Sans said and then added uncertainly with a blush. “was i really that obvious?”

Papyrus couldn’t help but chuckling in his typical ‘nyeheheh’s. 

“WELL… PROBABLY A LITTLE. BUT I AM ALSO YOUR BROTHER. WHAT SORT OF BROTHER WOULD I BE IF I HADN’T NOTICED!?” He claimed.

“you would still be my cool brother, as far as i'm concerned.” Sans reassured him.

“SO THAT MEANS THAT NOW I’M EVEN COOLER THAN THAT. MAYBE I COULD EVEN BE CONSIDERED THE COOLEST!” He added, before returning back to the topic at hand. “I’M PRETTY SURE MIRANDA DIDN’T NOTICE IT, IF THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE CONCERNED ABOUT. UNDYNE AND ALPHYS WOULD INTERPERT EVEN A SIMPLE PLATONIC HANDSHAKE AS ROMANTIC ADVANCES IF IT FIT THEIR AGENDA SO I DON’T REALLY CREDIT THEM MUCH IN THAT AREA EITHER. THE QUEEN MIGHT SUSPECT SOMETHING, THOUGH. YOU TWO ARE PRETTY GOOD FRIENDS, AFTER ALL.” He then asked. “HAVE YOU TOLD HER?”

“no. tori still doesn’t know. i’m pretty sure she would have said the same things you did if she knew.” Sans affirmed.

Papyrus, once again, thought his brother might not be giving the queen enough credit, just like he had with Miranda, but made no other comment about it.

“I STILL THINK YOU SHOULD SAY SOMETHING TO MIRANDA BUT I’LL RESPECT YOUR DECISIONS AND WON’T TELL HER ANYTHING ABOUT IT.” Papyrus finally admitted defeat.

He really didn’t mind it much, since he had yet to talk to Miranda about what she was feeling, but it still concerned him that this might not be too good for his older brother. Still, it was not his decision to make. He just hoped everything turned out alright in the end.

“JUST KNOW THAT I’M HERE IF YOU NEED ME, ALRIGHT SANS? I KNOW YOU DON’T LIKE TO RELY ON ME FOR ANYTHING LIKE THIS BUT I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE YOU ALONE WITH YOUR FEELINGS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU GET HURT. JUST PROMISE ME THAT YOU’LL COME TO ME IF YOU AREN’T FEELING SO GREAT. I’LL TRY MY BEST TO HELP YOU.”

Sans seemed reluctant on making such a promise. Papyrus knew why. Sans would always try to keep his promises as much as he could and would only break them if he really had no other choice what so ever. If he hadn’t known his brother’s core trait was Patience, Papyrus would have thought him to be Integrity.

“ok… i promise, paps.” Sans finally said and Papyrus couldn’t help but tackle him in a huge hug.

It might not be much in the grand scale, but if it could help his brother in anyway, Papyrus would take it. As much as he preferred that Miranda liked his brother back, if it turned out she’d really been telling the truth, at least he knew Sans would count on him this time. it might not be much when compared that what Papyrus still hoped he would get, but it was enough. 

Sometimes people had to be ok with just ‘enough’.


	57. Chapter 56: How To Embarrass Your Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus talks to Miranda. That's pretty much it. But it's cute. Also, Alphys and Undyne have to buy the bestest gifts ever for Miranda now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't write any summaries or notes in the last chapter. I posted it close to three in the morning where I live and was more dead than alive -_- to be honest, school work has been killing me dead. If I didn't have a few extra chapters stocked up before now I wouldn't have been able to post anything in these past few weeks. I used to have 6~7 chapters written in advance and now I only have 2 more (not counting this one). And it's getting to the good part too :( Christmas arc and the chapters that follow... I was looking forwards to writing them out and now I'm so suffocated with work... XC I don't wanna have to adult anymore... :C

Somehow, you managed to survive a whole afternoon of teasing from the scale duo and even got a few Christmas gifts bought out of the ordeal. Sure, it would have been much better if you had gone alone, but… 

What were you thinking! Of course, it would have been a bazillion times better to have gone alone! They wouldn’t stop trying to bring their shipping of you and Sans into focus! You couldn’t even properly focus on finding Sans a gift. You still didn’t know what to get him at all. And the fact that they were becoming down right dirty with their suggestions of gifts for him certainly didn’t help!

You drew a line when they dragged you to the sex shop… or you would have if Undyne wasn’t so freaking strong. It had already been bad enough when they pushed you into lingerie stores, shoved the skimpiest pieces, the sort that would rub your butt crack wrong, that they could find at you and told you to wear them with a bow and he would be happy! Then they were shoving… oh god what even were those things!?

They showed you so much stuff. It went from the more innocent outfits in the beginning, to handcuffs, to cock rings… and then the kinky stuff started. They started shoving buttplugs, strap ons and whips at you. And a shibari manual!

You froze! Or you pretended you did, anyway. You just had to leave that place! And it wasn’t because you were starting to imagine all too well all the possibilities those toys had! Well… maybe it was a bit because of that. As much as it ashamed you to admit it, you were never a pure girl growing up. Sure, a virgin for most of your teens, but not pure. You had entered sex shops several times before. Your little purple friend was your own purchase. And it hadn’t even been your first! But the other one you had bought it to surprise Daniel, still your boyfriend at the time. You’d even gotten the scaleduo’s wedding gift from this very same shop. Even so, when you did buy things, it was either for someone you were in a relationship with, for a couple you were friends with to enjoy, or for yourself. And Sans definitely didn’t fit in any of those categories, unless he got together with Toriel and you didn’t know.

When the two women finally noticed your self-imposed non-responsiveness they finally chilled down a bit and, when Undyne let go of your arm and got distracted long enough, you fled from the whole shopping center altogether. Rajani followed you but you ignored her. She had done nothing but laugh at your distress so you refused to acknowledge her in any way.

They eventually managed to find you and realized by your face that they had crossed way too many of your lines. You were undaunted by their apologies and kept your ‘bitch face’ until they drove you back to the compound for the sake of guilt tripping them. You wound up telling them you would forgive them if they got you mega awesome gifts for Christmas instead.

Once you entered the mansion you saw Papyrus sitting on the living room, deep in thoughts. It wasn’t unheard of for the tall skeleton to sometimes do this, but it wasn’t that common either. Usually it meant he was worried about his brother or wanted someone to lend him a hear. You brushed your irritability to the side as you walked his way, arms still heavy with shopping bags.

“Hei, Paps. What’s wrong?” You asked him.

He jumped up with a startled ‘NYEEEEEH!!!’ following it up with a mumbled ‘NOT AGAIN…’ afterwards. You patiently wait for the rattled skeleton to not be so rattled anymore.

“HELLO, SKINNY HUMAN! EVERYTHING IS FINE. I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING.” Papyrus said at last.

“Oh. It’s just that you looked so… solemn that I… well… you usually only look like that when you aren’t feeling too well or are too worried.” You explained yourself.

“I APPRECIATE YOUR CONCERN. IT IS TRUE, I AM FEELING A BIT CONCERNED ABOUT SOMETHING BUT I WAS ASKED TO KEEP IT A SECRET SO I CANNOT TALK TO YOU ABOUT IT.” He sighed with regret. The sentiment was understandable. He had started to rely on you a lot more when he was worried about something.

“It’s ok. It happened to me in the past too. You know, having to bear the weight of someone else’s secret? I won’t ask. But if you need me in any way that doesn’t demand you to reveal someone else’s secret just know that I’m here for you.” You told him.

“THANK YOU, SKINNY HUMAN.”

“You’re welcome.”

“ON A COMPLETELY UNRELATED NOTE… ARE YOU DONE GIFT SHOPPING?”

“Not really. Those two went a bit too far in their shipping. Not only didn’t I get to buy their gift because they were constantly on me, but I couldn’t even think up a decent gift for your brother, let alone actually buy him something.”

“OH? BECAUSE THEY KEPT PESTERING YOU?”

“YES! They kept shoving lingerie at me and telling me to just show up in his room Christmas morning with nothing more than that and a bow on! Not to mention when they dragged me to the sex shop!”

“WHAT!?” Papyrus shouted out at that, looking completely mortified for you.

“YEAH! A freaking sex shop! I’m not even kidding!”

= **It’s not like you don’t like sex shops, though. You actually used to visit them a few times before you moved to the USA.** = Rajani commented and you ignored her like she hadn’t said anything.

“So, how was your afternoon?” You asked Papyrus.

“NOT TOO PLEASANT. I HAD INTENDED ON ASKING TO GO WITH YOU ON YOUR SHOPPING TRIP BUT ALAS, MY PLANS WERE FOILED.” Papyrus admitted. “I DID SPEND SOME TIME TALKING TO MY BROTHER AND DESIGNING MORE PUZZLES FOR YOUR CANINE UNIT.”

“Really? How is the obstacle course going?”

“STILL NOT READY, BUT I’VE ELIMINATED ANYTHING HARMFUL FROM IT.”

“That’s great.” You said with great relief. “I wonder how much more you added to it, though.”

“WE REALLY HAVEN’T HAD MUCH TIME TO HANG OUT TOGETHER LATELY.” Papyrus agreed.

“… do you…” You hesitated, unsure on how to word you question.

“YES?”

“Are you free tomorrow at around lunch time?” You finally manage to ask.

“YES, INDEED I AM VERY MUCH FREE.”

“Do you want to join me in gift shopping? I’m going to take the chance to buy the gifts I already selected for the scale duo and could use some assistance on your brother’s.”

“YOU NEEDN’T EVEN ASK! OF COURSE I’LL JOIN YOU! I VERY MUCH HAVE MISSED HANGING OUT WITH YOU AND I’M SURE YOU HAVE FELT THE SAME WAY TOO.”

“Of course I have. You’re the Great Papyrus, after all!”

“NYEHEHEH!”

Papyrus proceeded to show you his obstacle course plans for a bit before dinner time.

The following day you had to go to work just like usual. You were taking care of the final details of the Christmas Special and the TV series was going smoothly. By all accounts you would soon have a few days off from Christmas eve until new years. That is, if there were no problems with the TV show until then. If there were then Greg would have to solve them and would most likely request your team if need be. You seriously hoped there were no problems.

Lunch time came and you left the building, meeting Papyrus at the entrance. He seemed pretty excited to go shopping with you. Rajani decided to stay behind, however. Apparently Nedd wanted to talk to her. Probably about multiple personality stuff.

You took the bus to the shopping center you had gone to with the scale duo. Since you had already picked and reserved Alphys’ and Undyne’s gifts and Papyrus still have no definite ideas on what to get, you went to the shop you chose first. Undyne’s gift was heavy so Papyrus offered to carry it for you, and you agreed, provided he let you buy his lunch once you were done with shopping.

You then meandered about, talking about what each person liked, as you helped Papyrus with his gift buying. By the end of it he still didn’t have all of them but he had, at least, a very good head start. As for Sans’ gift from you, while you did know several of his interests from prior conversations, you still didn’t know how to condensate that on something that could be wrapped up and put under the tree.

Another of Sans’ little note showed up when you finally took a break from browsing and sat down at the food court for your lunch. You’d decided to eat at Quasi Pronti, since it had a big variety of pastas that Papyrus might enjoy. You received your order and got distracted by the employee serving you when he asked if you wanted oregano on top. When you next looked at your tray you found the note tucked on the side, weighed down in one corner by the plate. Papyrus noticed you staring at it and must have read it and the puns encased in it, if the groan to be taken into account.

This time the note had two puns on it instead of its usual one per note.  
.

>   
>  -you can’t _pasta_ bly think i'm that complicated to shop for. but i guess that’s the way the _cookie crumbles_.-  
> 

.  
Next to the pasta dish there was a sundae recipient from McDonalds with the typical white ice cream with caramel, but instead of any other of the regular toppings, there was a crumbled McDonald’s Cookie covering it. You snorted a bit as you started towards the table with Papyrus.

“Sans! It’s rude to eavesdrop on people.” You said, though you were pretty sure he was no longer there.

“HAS MY BROTHER BEEN DOING THIS A LOT?” Papyrus asked.

“Ever since I told you guys to let him sleep in. It began by being this passive aggressive way of making me know he did not approve of being ‘babied’. You know, since I’m taking care of him like he’s a child he now is taking care of me by bringing me sweet stuff like _I’m_ the child.” You told the tall skeleton. “The messages have lost some of the initial snark as time went by, though. Now they are just sweet… and a bit ‘stalkery’, if I may add.”

“STALKERY?! ARE YOU PERHAPS INCONVENIENCED ABOUT THIS?”

“Nah. But you gotta admit, though. If it were anyone else, especially someone we didn’t know, this would have been a bit unnerving.”

“SKINNY HUMAN… DO YOU NOT LIKE SECRET ADMIRERS? I THOUGHT THAT WAS A SOMEWHAT ROMANTIC THING, IF A BIT WEIRD BY MONSTER STANDARDS.”

“Well, there are secret admirers and then there are stalkers that chase you everywhere and won’t stop no matter what. But yeah, even the whole secret admirer thing doesn’t hold much interest for me. If someone is going to claim they love me or respect a certain part of my characteristics, they should do it face to face. Besides, who’s to say it’s not a joke?” 

“A JOKE?”

“Yeah. Once, in one of the times I moved schools, I received an anonymous note on my desk telling me to meet them on a certain area of the playground. I went there just for the sake of softly rejecting them. I didn’t know anyone there yet and I don’t base my relationships on mere physical attraction alone. No one ever came. I’m pretty sure my new classmates decided to prank me that way, thinking I’m easy prey.”

“THAT’S AWFUL! EVEN IF YOU HADN’T WANTED TO START A RELATIONSHIP THEY STILL DIDN’T KNOW THAT. IF YOU HAD WANTED ONE THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY HURTFUL.”

“Yup. Which is why I don’t like the whole secret admirer thing. That and the whole not knowing the other person part. How can I get to know them and see if their personality fits mine if I don’t know who they are?”

“TRUE. ONCE MORE YOU DO HAVE A POINT.”

“By the way, what did you mean when you said that secret admirers are weird by monster standards? You didn’t initially seem that opposed.”

“TYPICALLY, MONSTERS DON’T DO THE WHOLE SECRECY THING. OR AT LEAST NOT THAT WAY. SOME OF US MIGHT GET SHY BUT WE DON’T APPROACH SOMEONE ROMANTICALLY UNLESS WE DECIDE TO SHOW OURSELVES. MAINLY FOR THE REASON YOU STATED NOT LIKING SECRET ADMIRERS. THE WHOLE GETTING TO KNOW THEM THING. SPEAKING OF, IF YOU BEGIN FEELING BOTHERED BY MY BROTHER’S SHENANIGANS I CAN ASK HIM TO STOP FOR YOU. NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO ENDURE SUCH TREMENDOUS AMOUNTS OF PUNS.”

“Pfft, nah. He’s fine. I’m trying to come up with a way to get back at him, though.” You admitted. “Any ideas?”

“NOT YET. AS GREAT AS I AM, I’VE JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT IT, AFTER ALL.”

“True.”

“I’M GLAD TO SEE THAT UNDYNE’S AND ALPHYS’ MEDDLING HASN’T AFFECTED YOUR FRIENDSHIP WITH MY BROTHER IN THE LEAST.”

“I wouldn’t say it didn’t affect us. For a while we couldn’t even be near each other for fear of their radical measures. Honestly, if Alphys and Undyne hadn’t soul bonded right away after the wedding and had stuck around to tease us in the aftermath of their little ‘prank’ it probably have made us stay apart for good. It was already embarrassing enough as it was, let alone with those two hovering around us to make it worse. There’s no telling what they would have done. But considering yesterday’s event’s? Nothing good, that’s for sure.”

“I GLAD YOU CAN STILL BE AROUND SANS, THEN. YOU ARE GOOD FOR HIM.”

“D’aww. You’re just saying that.” You blushed at the implications that you were actually capable of helping someone.

“NO, I REALLY MEAN IT. EVER SINCE YOU JOINED US ON THE COMPOUND AND STARTED TALKING MORE OFTEN TO SANS THAT HE SEEMED TO REGAIN THE INTERESTS HE’D LOST SINCE WE MOVED TO SNOWDIN AFTER OUR FATHER PASSED AWAY. I MEAN, HE STILL WORKED AT THE LAB WITH ALPHYS BUT IT SEEMED MORE LIKE HE WAS JUST FORCING HIMSELF INSTEAD OF ENJOYING IT. AND HE SMILES MORE OFTEN TOO, AND NOT THE FAKE KIND EITHER!”

“I’m not sure all of that was my doing, though. I’m just a regular human being, after all.”

“DO NOT SAY THAT! YOU ARE NOT REGULAR. NO FRIEND OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL EVER BE JUST A REGULAR ANYTHING. I HAVE VERY HIGH STANDARDS, AFTER ALL. THAT MEANS ALL MY FRIENDS WILL ALWAYS BE JUST AS GREAT AS ME!”

“Oh, geez. You sure know how to make a woman blush.” You said, sporting that very same blush you had just mentioned.

“WELL, AS LOVELY AS YOUR BLUSH IS, YOU SHOULDN’T BLUSH FOR SOMETHING THAT IS MERELY THE SIMPLE AND PLAIN TRUTH.”

“I still don’t think I really had anything to do with Sans getting better, though.” You decided to change the subject away from flattery directed at your person.

“WELL, HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THAT HE STARTED CHANGING ONLY AFTER YOU JOINED THE HOUSEHOLD?”

“Coincidence…?”

“FOR SOMEONE SO SMART YOU CAN BE PRETTY DENSE WHEN YOU WANT TO. MIRANDA, HE HAD A BIT MORE THAN HALF A YEAR TO GET BETTER AFTER FINALLY BEING ABLE TO LIVE ON THE SURFACE. IF IT HAD BEEN JUST HIS DOING OR THE FACT THAT HE IS FINALLY OUT OF THE UNDERGROUND HE WOULD HAVE IMPROVED MUCH FASTER THAN THAT. AND WHILE HE DID GET A BIT BETTER, IT’S NOTHING WHEN COMPARED TO HOW MUCH FASTER HE IMPROVED AFTER YOU CAME INTO THE PICTURE.”

“But I didn’t do anything.”

“THAT’S JUST IT. YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO. YOU ARE JUST NATURALLY A GREAT PERSON AND YOUR PARTICULAR BRAND OF GREATNESS WAS JUST WHAT HE NEEDED.”

“Papyrus...!”

By the end of the conversation you looked like an overly ripe tomato and still had a hard time believing his words but your chest felt much lighter and warmer than before. Even if you still didn’t truly believe, just the thought that you might have actually helped someone... that you helped _Sans_ mentally and emotionally…?

It filled you with Kindness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter: Rajani's conversation with Nedd and Miranda pays Sans back for stalking her with notes and trying to find out what she's going to buy for him XP


	58. Chapter 57: The World For Once In Perfect Harmony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rajani and Nedd talk and Miranda and Rajani take revenge on Sans for being an eavesdropper ;P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay.

\--Rajani’s POV--

 

She admitted she had been surprised when Nedd told them both he wanted to speak with her. Sure, Rajani had answered some questions about herself before, but it had been more of a public conversation and she somehow doubted that was what this was going to be about.

Then again, she distrusted people far too easily. Too many instances of betrayal and of people showing her all the darkest parts of the human population for her gut reaction not to be proceeding with caution.

She watched through the cafeteria’s window as her sister met up with Papyrus and they both left to the bus station. At least, whatever it was that Nedd wanted to ask, she could somewhat shield her mind sister from it. That is… unless she really, really wanted to know what was said. Miranda was pretty curious. At times, too much for her sake. But honestly, so far, her curiosity had proven far more useful than ignorance had. If Miranda hadn’t been curious about the people who ruined their lives they might never have found out about the organization wanting to hunt them down.

Rajani cautiously turned back to the unassuming human man. As unassuming as he might be, Rajani would never give her trust easily. He wanted something out of her. She could feel it. She just wished she could know what.

Well, nothing like the direct approach, she guessed.

= **So, what do you want? I seriously doubt this is just a social gathering of two.** = She asked neutrally.

Ok, maybe there was the smallest hint of vinegar in there, but nothing too prominent.

“Ouch! Straight to the point.” He winced dramatically like she’d just stabbed him in the chest.

= **Ha ha. Very funny.** = She commented sarcastically.

“Ok, ok. I get it. No small talk.” He sighed.

= **Exactly!** =

“Ok. To put it bluntly, then. Why is Miranda so hellbent on denying how she feels for her Skelebae?” He finally asked and Rajani froze in place.

= **Seriously!? And here I was thinking you might have stopped being such a big jackass!** = She spouted, preparing to fly away.

“I’m not asking for the sake of shipping her. I understand that, for some reason, she can’t accept that she feels something for him and that pushing her will not work. I will not be pushing her any longer, for that matter. But I _am_ curious.” He quickly explained.

It didn’t douse Rajani’s anger and distrust completely, but it was enough for her to stop preparing an escape and give him a chance.

= **You expect me to believe that?** = She asked.

“Not really, no. But I had to at least try asking you. You’re the one who knows her best.”

She stared at him, uncertain of his intentions just yet. She knew with all certainty that he had changed the way he acted towards her mind sister. Even if there was some teasing once in a while, it was always all in good fun and he never extended it beyond what was comfortable banter. If he realized he might have gotten too carried away he apologized, even though that had only happened once so far.

She didn’t want to trust him. It wasn’t in her nature to do so, anyway.

…

But what if he could actually help Miranda, unlike the scale duo?

Rajani knew that if Miranda kept on denying her feelings she could end up having a mental breakdown under the strain. She’d tried to hint at the truth as a way to nudge her but, admittedly, she wasn’t very committed to it. She didn’t want her mind sister to be with Sans, after all. But Nedd didn’t have such feelings hindering him. If he could somehow be neutral about the whole thing…

“Rajani?” He called her and she realized she’d been lost in thought for a bit too long.

= **Was considering my options.** = She explained curtly. = **First off! I need to know you won’t be telling any of what we discuss to the scale duo. They lost a fuck ton of privileges yesterday with their shipping antics already. Any more and Mir might stop being their friend altogether.** =

“What did they do?” 

= **They dragged her to lingerie stores, tossing clothes at her she wouldn’t wear if her life depended on it, forced her into a sex shop and kept throwing kinky stuff at her.** =

Nedd laughed and Rajani couldn’t really blame him. She’d laughed too, after all. Especially all the ways Miranda kept thinking up on killing or maiming the two women. She especially liked the one where she grilled Undyne and served her to Alphys with a few lemon slices on top, forced the drake to eat her, and then flayed the reptile’s skin to make herself some snazzy boots. She knew Miranda would never do such a thing and might have been too influenced with her own presence there but boy was her imagination a creative psycho when mixed with her influences.

It wasn’t unusual for them to influence the emotions and thought processes of one another. Thankfully it was only small-scale things, like Miranda gaining some very colorful and creative mind scenarios about someone else’s doom. Miranda’s emotions had certainly influenced Rajani into being a bit tender than her own usual when she sang that song to Sans the night he had the nightmare.

= **Laugh all you need right now. Miranda will get offended if you do it in front of her. She got so pissed at me for laughing that she is still refusing to even acknowledge my existence, aside from letting me talk privately to you.** =

“Dully noted.” He confirmed. “So… about my questions.”

She sighed.

= **You have no idea how complex the answer to that question is, pal.** =

“Try me.”

= **Fine, you brought it on yourself.** = She commented and then explained. = **The thing with Miranda and intimate romantic connections is that she has a whole ton of issues regarding that. She once dated a guy due to peer pressure and curiosity and, when she realized they didn’t have anything in common, she broke up with him and was considered a pariah because of that. It really made her reject even the thought of being in a relationship that wasn’t a serious one. Then she dated a guy who she initially though was a great man and she loved him deeply, only for him to turn out to be a douchebag that drained her emotionally and mentally to the point that, when they finally broke up, she almost wound up taking her own life with a broken bottle. Then there’s that fact that something happened in the past that made her lose her whole family at the same time, leaving her pretty hopeless. And let’s not forget her potential daddy issues, since she was nothing short of a cash cow to her father!** =

“That sure is a lot.”

= **Indeed. Thing is, she can’t see herself in a relationship that isn’t serious. When she commits to someone she gives herself completely. Body and Soul. She’ll never betray the person she is with and won’t even consider so much as looking at other attractive men. And then she got back-stabbed by the person she really loved. And, not only that, but she ends up losing all the people that matter to her. Right now, it’s not just the serious dating issue that plagues her, but an irrational fear of losing the person she loves. Like if, from the moment she admits she loved someone, they are doomed to be taken away from her somehow. Either by betraying her or by getting killed or maimed. And that terrifies her greatly. She doesn’t even realize how terrified she is about it, but she is. Heck, just admitting she felt like all of the people at the compound were like family was hard enough for her, let alone admitting her feelings towards a romantic interest.** =

“I see… So, the perp behind all of it is a massive bundle of trauma, then?”

= **Exactly. And this is not healthy for her mental state.** =

“Obviously.”

= **Also, I’m not exactly the most unbiased of people when it comes to Miranda, so any help I could be in this case… is a bit… how do I put it…** =

“Be a bit prejudiced?”

= **Right on the money. You see, I don’t really like Sans that much. Not when it comes to being a romantic partner to my Miranda. But that would also be applicable to anyone else she could probably fall in love with. He’s just in a worse situation because he initially threatened her, afraid she would hurt his brother or something.** =

“That’s ridiculous! I might not have been the closest of people to Miranda in the past but, even then, I knew she would never do something like that!”

= **Apparently, he didn’t. Anyway, I’ve been trying to help her as much as I can but I’m not really that committed to it as much as I should be.** =

“Right, so there’s nothing he could do to fall on your good graces?”

= **Well… He has already done a lot of stuff that earned him some brownie points with me. Actually, if he wasn’t Miranda’s love interest I might have gotten along with him famously! Heck, even my insult to him has lost its initial vinegar! But I guess that, when it comes to my sister’s love life I just can never be satisfied. Not when she gives herself so fully to the person she loves. You can’t even imagine the kind of trust and faith she put on her ex before the break up. She was the kind of never feeling jealous because why should she feel that way? Even if other women came onto her boyfriend, she trusted him so much that she believed he wouldn’t pay them the time of day. That’s how much trust and faith she put in his ‘love’ for her.** =

“Wow, really?”

= **Yup. She said that jealousy isn’t a sign of love. It’s a sign of insecurity. It might be acceptable in a relationship that is just beginning when both parties still don’t know each other that well. But the moment they know each other and one party still feels the need to feel jealous then that isn’t love but obsession. Jealousy is a sickness in a long-term relationship, especially when there’s too much of it. If you have cause to distrust your loved one, then why stay with them in the first place? This is what she thinks, at least.** =

“It’s a bit naïve, I admit. But I guess it holds some truth to it.”

= **Yup. She is right. The problem is if you love a cheater. Some people won’t leave them, even if its hurtful to them. I don’t really understand why.** =

“Would you really just walk away from the person you love just like that?”

= **Yes.** =

“How can you be so sure?”

= **Simple. As much as I love the person, I gotta face the facts: would the person I fell in love with really do something like cheating? The part of them I fell in love with certainly never would. No one wants to fall in love with a cheater, after all. That means that the part of him I fell in love with is nothing but a fake, a hologram, and the real him is nothing more than a man trying to pass off as someone else and using those fake perceptions of him to his advantage, meaning he is not at all the person I fell in love with. I don’t owe him any of my love, in that case. Yes, I would still be heartbroken due to the fact that the version of him that I loved was gone too, but at least I wouldn’t be dealing with a person trying to pass off as the man I fell in love with.** =

“That’s… a bit convoluted and harsh.”

= **Not as harsh as being cheated on by the person you trust the most.** =

“That’s true.” He admitted and then asked. “So… as much as you loved him you wouldn’t take him back?”

= **Highly unlikely. I would put him through a test of his will and sincerity. I would be hard on him and only if he _really_ wanted to get back together would he have even the slightest chance. It also wouldn’t be just about him proving his feelings to me. It would also be about me making him suffer. Because what he would have done to me by cheating would have hurt a lot. And if after all those trials and tribulations he managed to get back in a relationship with me only to do the same thing again then he would have lost his chance for good.** =

“Man, you are one harsh lady.”

= **I don’t take trust lightly, just like Miranda doesn’t take feelings lightly.** =

“Are you alright with that, even if it could hurt you this much or even prevent you from having a relationship at all?”

= **Yes! I would be better off alone that with someone I can’t place my trust in. Besides! Would a man I didn’t fully trust really be ok with me constantly checking on him like one of those nosey ladies that constantly suspect their boyfriends and husbands are cheating? I doubt. Even I never liked those characters in movies and TV series. Why would I want to become one?** =

“You are very sure of yourself.” Nedd commented. 

Many others would have said it with a hint of mockery in that sentence but all Rajani sensed from him was appreciation.

= **I have to be. I have to make others see that I’ll will not be messed with. At the same time, show them that I also won’t mess with anyone. I hold the very same standard I impose on others to me. It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t, after all. Relationships are a two-way street.** =

“I wish there were more people thinking like that, honestly.” He said.

= **Thinking about your ex-wife?** =

“Yes.”

= **Tell me about her. It might help.** =

“I met her when I was taking some time off from one of my assignments. It was in this cocktail bar, very classy, and she was dressed so beautifully and gracefully… And then she drop-kicked a drunkard that tried to feel her up.” He chuckled a little. “I guess I was lost to her the moment I saw her do that. She took to me pretty quickly too after I introduced myself and complimented her physical skills. ‘Anyone can appreciate a beautiful woman’ she said ‘but only a real man would appreciate her other ‘less attractive’ attributes’.” He told her. “I guess our relationship took off pretty fast. In just a few weeks we were dating. A few months more and we were married. Everything seemed fine for a few months.”

= **What went wrong?** =

“We started fighting. A LOT. I don’t even remember how it started. It seemed like petty little things, to be honest. Who took the garbage out, cancelled dinner plans because of my work. I had to go every time I was called in, but she knew all of that before she married me! I didn’t hide it from her at all. I always made sure that she knew of it if she wanted to be in a relationship with me. A serious one at that!”

= **I feel compelled to promptly agree with you… but I’m sure Miranda would be pointing out that she probably didn’t really know what she was getting into and probably didn’t know it would get that bad.** = She said cautiously.

“I suppose…”

= **Still, I’m with you on this one. Just so you know.** = Rajani said.

Animators did have to work overtime a lot if requested, especially when it came to meeting a dead line. Still, that was no reason for a bitch of a woman to dump their husband! It wasn’t as if he was gone for months on end, after all. Probably arrived late at home in days prior to holiday specials.

Rajani didn’t know where Nedd had worked at before, but he was accepted pretty quickly by Greg, so he must have a heck of a recommendation letter… Had he perhaps worked too much and ignored his wife at home completely? Even so, blaming it on working overtime wasn’t the answer. People should just learn to talk to one another, dammit!

“Thanks.” He said and Rajani relaxed back into the table so as not to waste her fuel. “Returning to the topic that made me want to talk to you in the first place. How should we proceed in regards to Miranda’s feelings? I mean, since you just asked me for help, I‘m assuming you don’t mind if I actually do it.”

= **Yeah. I do need your help. I’m not happy about it, but it’s true. Just… don’t let the overly shippy bitches know about it. They would _FUH-REAK OUT_ if they knew and would ultimately hinder the whole shtick.** =

“Yeah, I agree with you. They have their heart in the right place. They really do. They just want to see others be as happy as them two are right now. They just have the tendency to become overly excited and cross the line way too many times because of it.”

 

= **I… suppose…** = Rajani reluctantly accepted.

“But before we start planning… Can I ask you something? It’s mostly unrelated, really, but I’m genuinely curious.”

= **Urgh! Fine! What part of me being a multiple personality interests you now?”** = She asked resignedly.

“Being Miranda’s multiple personality, does that mean you secretly love Sans too?” He asked and, after a moment of stunned silence, Rajani burst laughing, almost losing control of her rajbot, which caused a few glitchy sounds come from her speakers as well.

= **Oh my! That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard, Neddinerd!** =

“Hey! Don’t make fun! I seriously don’t know about any of that!” He complained.

= **Yeah, alright, alright!** = She managed to stop laughing. = **To put it bluntly, me and Miranda only share a body. Our personalities are largely different so it means we wouldn’t like the exact same things. As for Sans, while I could come to like him as things are, I guess, it probably would only be as a friend. If he wasn’t Miranda’s romantic interest I probably would really have liked him, although I’m not sure it would be in a romantic way. If he hadn’t been a complete judgmental asshole by threatening us I probably would have befriended him quite fast.** = Rajani pondered, trying to keep the options open. = **In the end, I think Sans is too soft to be on a relationship with me. Even in the unlikeliest chance in some shipper’s wet fantasy we wound up together, we probably wouldn’t last very long because of it. I’m a very harsh person. I have issues even bigger than those Miranda has. Issues that aren’t too healthy for a relationship, especially with someone as soft as Sans is. I would probably need someone who could withstand the acid I sometimes spew when I’m at one of my lowest points mentally. Not only withstand it, but get me out of the funk that caused it in the first place. Someone who could see beyond it and perhaps snap right back? I’m a very confrontational person and if someone kept letting me step all over them then that wouldn’t be a very good relationship. I would need someone who could face me and make me back off. That’s not to say I think Sans is a weak man. He does have several strengths, from what I have observed. But I guess I would probably need a far edgier version of him, if you know what I mean.** =

“Oh ok. So… Miranda’s feelings don’t influence you in any way what so ever?”

= **That statement is also incorrect. We still share the same body and I still have access to what she feels. It’s how I know she loves Sans, after all. It’s more like a second-hand emotion that pales significantly to my real ones. Imagine it like you are trying to put yourself into someone else’s shoes, like a character from a book you are reading. The emotions your imagined feelings aren’t exactly yours, so to say. Darn, I’m probably messing up the explanation.** = She swore. = **Anyway, I can feel things from her and, to a certain degree, can be slightly influenced by them, but it’s pretty weak.** =

“Oh, I understand. Thanks for explaining. Anyway, back to planning?”

= **Of course!** =

 

\--Your POV--

 

A few days had passed since you’d went shopping with Papyrus. You hadn’t managed to get Sans a gift that day and it probably was for the best. He had obviously eavesdropped on you and could have ruined your surprise. Not that you wound up getting him anything anyway but still…

Either way it didn’t matter. You eventually collected all you needed for an awesome Christmas gift for the short boneboy. It took very careful planning for you to keep it a secret. You wound up asking Greg for a favor to have an afternoon off. The only way of ensuring that Sans wouldn’t snoop would be to go shopping while he was at work and convinced you were too. Even if he stopped by your desk, you had pasted a post-it note saying you were in the bathroom addressed to your coworkers on your computer screen. Rajani was in charge of floating by the McDonald’s once in a while to make sure he was still there. 

Even with all those precautions in place your heart had been thundering all the while you sneaked out of the studio and bought all the necessary items. As soon as that was all over and done with you ran back to your work place and hid everything in your laptop’s bag, just in case.

That being said, you still hadn’t managed to get back at Sans for all the sweet notes… which was what you were doing now. You’d talked with Toriel to set this prank up. She would off handedly comment in front of Sans that you’d be going shopping for your last gift the afternoon of your day off. It was, coincidentally, a weekend and Sans’ day off as well. 

You wouldn’t be in the room when she did, though. You’d already be on your way. Someone would be bound to ask why you’d gone alone and Toriel would get cagey about it and release a few coy giggles. That was sure to intrigue the boneboy.

Your phone vibrated just as you got off the bus and you checked it. It was Toriel confirming that her part of the plane was done and the Sans had mysteriously disappeared. You forced yourself not to smirk at that as Rajani floated at your side, mentally laughing at how well it was working.

You walked towards the shops for a bit before start going through your scripted conversation. It was only when Rajani had caught the faintest glimpse of their target that they started. You moved to a quieter area so that he could more easily listen in on you.

= **I really don’t understand you sometimes! I thought you didn’t like the scale duo’s ideas for a gift for him!** = Rajani protested, sounding every bit as testy.

“It’s not that I didn’t like the ideas but… this is not exactly the sort of thing I want them to see me buy…” You said, trying to sound as shy about the whole thing as you could, but not to the point it didn’t sound believable anymore.

= **What are you going to get him anyway?** =

“Well… I’m not really sure what skeletons like, let alone Sans in particular, but I guess that, since he liked my purple vibrator so much, I might buy him one for himself!” You said cheerily and you could faintly hear a surprised sputter from somewhere behind the corner to your seven o’clock.

= **I wonder… skeletons even have buttholes?** = Rajani asked, and this time it was genuine.

“I… I’m assuming so. I mean… I was in the bathroom with him so they must have something. I’m not about to ask, though.”

= **At least he confirmed he could, somehow, do the do. I wonder what it looks like…** = Rajani wondered, thinking back on what Sans had told you back on Halloween.

“Erm… I don’t really want to think too deeply about that…” Your blush wasn’t at all fake. You also couldn’t help the mental pictures that came with it. 

= **You don’t, do ya? Then why are you being so detailed about it? So, you think it’s blue like his tongue? That one is pretty sizable too. The better to fill you up with.** = Rajani said sadistically. You heard a male squeak from behind the corner again but only payed half a mind to it, the other part being massively flustered.

“RAJANI! I didn’t mean that! I was just… picturing it out of curiosity and you know that! It’s not like I actually intend on acting on something like that!” You protested. Thankfully you could just tell Sans this was all part of the act too when you revealed your prank.

= **Oh really… Then why are you so present in many of those mental scenarios, hmm? I particularly like the one where you are just begging him to fill you up good in all fours, offering him up your vag.** =

You heard another sputter from behind the corner.

“OH MY GOD!!! I did not think of that!” But you certainly were now. Thankfully Rajani didn’t feel the need to lampshade that. 

= **What about the one where you have him tying you using the shibari manual Undyne tried to have you buy and beg him to just take you?** = Rajani continued.

“Seriously!? Stop with your dirty mind!” You may have wondered what it felt like when Undyne showed you the manual but you never actually pictured it.

= **Oh! Oh! What about that one! You know the one!** =

“No!”

= **The one where you tell him you’re interested in an orthopedic lesson and he then fucks you into the mattress! I love that one!** = Rajani said excitedly as you redden even more, chanting in your mind that you would just tell him it was all part of the act.

It didn’t help that this one was true…

Shamefully… 

There was some faint panting coming from behind the corner now, but you were too busy being embarrassed to notice.

“Rajani!!! I think we’ve made the boneboy suffer your perverted mind enough.” You decided to put an end to this before she went too far. “What do you say, Sans? Have you learned not to eavesdrop on people yet?”

He didn’t say anything for a while and you turned the corner to see him there, clutching his bright blue face in shame and embarrassment. It made up largely for your embarrassment.

= **We gotcha pretty good, didn’t we?** = Rajani said smugly.

The only reply she got was an odd low whine as whatever he actually said was muffled by his boney hands.

“Hei, it’s ok. We were just messing with you a bit. You shouldn’t have tried to find out what your gift was, though.” You said, patting him on the shoulders. You hadn’t expected for him to lean on you but took it in stride and wrapped your arm around his shoulders.

“i really should have _sex_ pected this.” He said and you snorted at the unexpected pun.

He finally lifted his head from his hands, having managed to control his blush at last. Well… mostly. There was still a faint -when compared to before- tinge of blue on his cheek bones.

“Yes, yes you should have, you _cock_ sure bonehead!”

He chuckled a bit and finally stepped away from you.

“you really did get me pretty bad. was toriel in on it too?"

“Yup.”

“should have known.”

“Buuut~~ you didn’t!” You said in a singsong-y manner. “Wanna hang out, since we’re already all the way over here?” You asked.

“might as well.”

“Great! I wanna eat another of those _orgasmic_ Nice Creams!”

“heh. i guess i can stomach some _moan_ food. ”

= **Will you stop _dick_ ing around and move!? I want some grub too.**=

You went in search of Leveret’s cart on the food court and found it quite fast. Rajani didn’t really eat anything but Alphys had found a way for her to absorb the magic of the food as fuel for her rockets. Instead of munching down on food, she would open a hatch on her chest that had an incinerator shield of sorts that broke down the matter to absorb the magic. It wasn’t the same as tasting anything but at least it helped fueling your mind sister’s bot, so there was that. 

She didn’t taste it so she picked chocolate ice cream just because. She didn’t usually actually like chocolate ice cream since it tended to lean to the bitter side most times and preferred actual milk chocolate to that. But since she couldn’t taste it, she chose it for the sake of principle. You tried the Lummen Shroom this time as Sans picked… ketchup flavored? Yes, you wouldn’t ask to try a bit out of his anytime soon. Or EVER. Unless you hit your head really, really hard.

You ignored his wink at your disbelieving stare and unwrapped the blue nice cream from the plastic. You hadn’t asked Undyne to try a bit of hers, the last time you’d gone for Nice Creams, so you didn’t know what to expect aside from the description. You gave it a tentative lick and hummed in appreciation at the flavor before shoving the tip into your mouth with a sound of shameless gluttony at the sweet taste of it. Why were Nice Creams so good?

= **You gonna lick that ice cream good, aren’t you?** = Rajani asked after a while and you looked at her in confusion. = **Gotta enjoy that blue shaft of deliciousness after all.** = Rajani continued, motioning towards the skeleton at your side.

Sans was blue faced again. It took you a moment to realize the implications of both the comment and Sans’ expression.

“Oh, come ON! It’s a freaking ice cream! Get your minds out of the gutter!” You complained completely flustered. “Don’t ruin ice cream for me! Geez! What is it with men and my mind sister to immediately think of a dick when faced with an oblong object!”

= **Alright, alright. Welp! I got some stuff to do. Gimme me some of our money. I’m going to buy something.** = Rajani told you and you handed her a few bills. = **Great! I’ll see you back home, perhaps. That way you won’t have to wait for me.** =

“Ok. Cool beans. See you at home, then.”

= **Bye.** =

With that, she flew off towards some shops you didn’t bother identify.

“that was a bit weird.” Sans commented.

“Nah, not really. Just regular Rajani. I know you don’t spend a lot of time with her but that’s precisely the point. She is awkward around other people. She is reasonably good with kids, I guess. It’s just people in our age group that she has a problem with. She actually gets along with you all much better than she usually would.”

“is it because of the whole bullying thing?”

“Yes.” You admitted with a resigned sigh.

He hummed in response to that, probably not wanting to say anything more.

“Well? Got any ideas on what to do next? We don’t have to go back just yet, after all.”

“true. probably something that doesn’t require moving?”

Predictable.

“Should we go to the movies, then?”

“sure. why not?” Sans shrugged.

Still, you weren’t quite satisfied with that. You pondered for a bit and then had an idea.

“Hey! You’re a science sort of guy, right?” You asked, mostly in a rhetoric way.

“dunno. am i?”

“Oh, shush! Why are you so cagey about your interests?” You shot back and then proceeded. “I know a place where you sit for a long time and do nothing but learn! I haven’t gone there in all this time but I’ve wanted to so…” You looked at him doing your best puppy dog eyes you could.

He didn’t need a lot of prodding.

“sure, let’s go. where do i ‘port us to?”

“No need. I’ll lead you there! Maybe I’ll even make a surprise out of it.”

“erm… ok…” He said unsurely.

You dragged him back to the bus stop and searched for the right bus. Fortunately, lady luck seemed to be on your side that day and you didn’t have to wait long. You excitedly payed for both of your fees and sat on the back for the sake of feeling all the bumps of the road. 

You liked sitting there because it was the closest it could get to a roller coaster on the road, especially if you had an especially reckless driver. Sans teased you at your weird habit of sitting in the back for maximum bumping experience. 

“Please stop that.” You asked at some point, getting tired of all the teasing. “I get it! I’m weird! Tell me something I don’t know.”

“there’s no need to get upset.”

“Then why won’t you stop?”

“because it’s a cute reason and your embarrassed face is even cuter.”

“W-what!”

Needless to say, he spent the rest of the ride calling you variants of that word and you pulled his hood over his face to get him to stop.

Once you arrived at your stop you went the long way towards the building so that Sans couldn’t see the name and walked really close to the wall so that the perspective would help hiding your true intentions. Before entering you shoved his hood back over his head again and this time you wouldn’t let him take it off. You quickly payed the tickets and dragged the skeleton inside. The real event hadn’t started yet but the projectors were on already, showing all visitors an amazing view.

“Here! Sit in the chair behind you. Be careful. It reclines backwards.” You tell Sans as you direct him to one of the seats. 

He feels around with his hands until being sure of the chair’s position and sat down, releasing a surprised huff when it reclined back more than he expected, making you giggle as you sat on your own chair.

“so, can i take this off now?”

“I don’t know… can you?” You said, in imitations to his previous similar comment.

“heh, fair enough.” He said as he removed the hood from his eyes.

His movements stopped once he saw the projections of stars on the ceiling, his typical grin becoming slacked in amazement. You had only ever seen his grin slack in that way when he’d slept with you after Undyne’s and Alphys’ wedding. He looked back you.

“you took me to the planetarium?” He said, his smile returning, far more genuine than before.

“Yup. I love space and I’ve seen some astronomy books in your room so I thought you might like it too. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the brains to have an astronomy related job and I’ve been told it’s just as difficult becoming an astronaut, so… Yeah. I kind of gave up that dream.”

“that’s too bad.”

“It’s no problem! I like my job right now. And besides, I can still enjoy the stars and planets even without having a job related to it, can’t I?”

“yeah.” He agreed.

“What about you? Was my guess right?”

“yup. The only place that came close to the night sky was waterfall.”

“It’s a beautiful area.” You commented and then saw his forlorn expression. “But it’s not the same.”

“no, it’s not. there’s so much things you humans found and i've heard you’ve even gone to the moon! there’s so much to learn yet… i still like waterfall the best of all the underground but… it seems so limited in comparison to the vastness of the real deal.”

“That’s true.”

And because he still looked so melancholic, you reached out your hand and held his, startling him. He looked at you in surprise and you smiled gently at him, willing as much support as you could through your simple gesture. He seemed to get it. Whether if it was from reading your aura or from you having an actual metaphysical power, he got the message loud and clear. Though let’s be honest: it was probably the aura reading. If you had any sort of power it would have manifested itself already.

“thanks, miranda.” He said at last and, for some reason, him using your real name just then felt sort of… intimate. You couldn’t help but blush because if it.

“N-no problem.” You said back, fixing your eyes back on the rounded ceiling.

He didn’t say anything more. Eventually the real show started. This one was based around the space probe Hubble and Sans was immediately suckered in. You didn’t really pay much attention, focused on him still holding you hand through the show.

He didn’t let go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter is a cryptic one.   
> on another note, there is a sort of 'easter egg' on this chapter. care to guess which is it ad what it pertains to? I can't wait for the fist guesses.


	59. Chapter 58: (▼-▼)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ’s Reports

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it doesn't show up in the title the emoji was supposed to be this one: (▼-▼)
> 
> see more in the notes at the end. for now enjoy the chapter. Gotta say, I had just a bit too much fun writing this one up.

\--’s Reports--

#  **Case File: Dieback**

###  **Briefing 1**

In the follow up of the unnamed criminal organization, from hence forth code named as Dieback, the computer technician on team managed to find the original chat-log pertaining to the attack, confirming that the war veteran hadn’t been the intended target and that the antimatter bomb was intended to threaten the head of our agency into backing down from his investigation.

The death count during the attack reached an estimated number of 350 lives, counting the animals that inhabited the enclosure, destroying the building almost completely. There were only 13 human survivors and of those 13 one of them seemed to be immune to the effects of the antimatter, inadvertently protecting those behind them. 

That person’s existence was brought to light via the social media and has already been nicknamed Banshee by the masses. According to the photograph, they appear to be a female wearing a bloody yellow dress while holding another female who might be either unconscious or dead. There are no shots of her face and no clear enough pictures to be completely sure of the Banshee’s ethnicity. She appears to have light colored skin and might possibly be a native, making her a Latino, but she might also be a tourist, which expands her ethnicity to any light-colored skin existent.

The social feed proceeded to detail that the Banshee disappeared from scene, taking the female she was holding onto with her. Chances are that the female was still alive and she tried to get her to a hospital. 

Upon further interrogation, with the permission of Portuguese authorities, that turned out to be the truth. However, all information about either of their names has been deleted. Several traffic cameras detail their progression from the hospital to the airport where she charted an emergency flight to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. All clues to their trail from then on have also been deleted.

Dieback has shown interest in finding the Banshee with the intention of experimenting on her for the sake of finding out whether her resistance to the antimatter bomb was a fluke due to a failure in the bomb itself of if she might have a special property that naturally counteracts the antimatter and to find a way of countering it. 

Our scientists are also showing interest on her for the sake of creating shields against any other potential antimatter bombs that might be used.

Our mission is to track down all the potential Banshees in our country, discerning which of the potential candidates is her and securing her.

\--24 files found--

###  **Target 1: Code Name Coneflower{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 2: Code Name Cosmos{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 3: Code Name Daylily{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 4: Code Name Yarrow**

###  **Target 5: Code Name Hosta**

###  **Target 6: Code Name Sedum{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 7: Code Name Zinnia{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 8: Code Name Petunia{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 9: Code Name Buddleia{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 10: Code Name Amaranthus**

###  **Target 11: Code Name Celosia {DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 12: Code Name Lenten{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 13: Code Name Snowdrop**

###  **Target 14: Code Name Itoh{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 15: Code Name Yucca{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 16: Code Name Cleome{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 17: Code Name Lantana**

###  **Target 18: Code Name Nicotiana{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 19: Code Name Portulaca**

###  **Target 20: Code Name Sanvitalia{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 21: Code Name Tagetes{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 22: Code Name Tithonia{DEBUNKED}**

###  **Target 23: Code Name Verbena**

###  **Target 24: Code Name Monarda{DEBUNKED}**

\--Open file Target 13: Code Name Snowdrop--

#  **Target 13: Code Name Snowdrop**

###  **File 1**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

I have established my cover as Snowdrop’s co-worker. My prior interests in this field have helped me adapt to the new role easily.

Snowdrop doesn’t react much to any attempts at social interactions on mine or anyone else’s part, keeping the conversation polite but being very cagey about any personal questions posed to her. My observations also verified that she is a very capable worker with a wide range of strengths and knowledge of the software and work area in general.

I have also tailed her in hopes of finding her residence but it appears she does not have one. Instead she found an out-of-view alleyway and has secured it as her sleeping quarters. She also seems to own six pets (three cats and three dogs) that she keeps there.

I have requested my handler to install cameras there for the sake of monitoring her while I rest.

###  **File 2**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

This is now week two and she still avoids social interactions. She has proven herself to be capable of being considerate towards others and help them without needing to be requested, however.

The cameras were installed.

She seems to have severe nightmares at night, waking up screaming and thrashing and spending the following hour curled up shivering as her pets gather around her. She seems to be training her pets to act as therapy animals.

###  **File 5**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

Snowdrop has now begun to train her pets more extensively. They have learned to guard their sleeping quarters and are starting to learn several different commands. Some are learning quicker than others. I decided it was for the best that I acquaintance myself with her pets while she’s out of her sleeping space so as to let them get used to my presence. There might be an emergency that requires me to go there and if I wait too long they might not take to me at all.

She continues to have nightmares and exhibit signs of insomnia. She also reacts a bit whenever someone at the work place mentions the antimatter bomb, though she quickly covers up her reaction. This makes me think that she has a high chance of being the Banshee, though I might be wrong about that.

###  **File 6**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

She has a storage unit. She has visited it for the first time this week and spent some time inside before leaving. I’ll be requesting for surveillance on the inside of the unit.

Nightmares continue. She seems to be starting to train herself into not screaming. It’s a wise idea, though I’m not sure if she’ll succeed. She had been starting to attract too much attention from the people with her screams. Some of the homeless have tried to forcefully dislodge her from her sleeping space and steal her things. She scared them off with her biggest dog. His name seems to be Hades.

I have taken to bringing her pets food for the sake of getting them used to me. Now they expect it from me every single time. Snowdrop has also begun to notice the leftover food. She seems to think her pets have developed some sort of ability to hunt down for food themselves. Stopping now might look suspicious to her.

###  **File 8**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

I have made a grave mistake. It isn’t necessary for there to be any surveillance on her storage unit. It appears she uses her alone time there as re-creative sexual self-entertainment (boss, please don’t make fun of me too, I already get ragged on by my peers). I will, however, try to break in unnoticed to check what she has inside those boxes aside from purple vibrators.

Her self-training in keeping her voice down after the nightmares is working better than her training of her pets.

###  **File 12**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

She seems to have befriended a homeless man and let him stay with her when he asked her instead of demanding she surrender her spot. He is middle aged and doesn’t seem to use drugs, though he does like to drink. He is also showing signs of being sexually attracted to her, though the feeling isn’t mutual.

She seems more open to conversation with her peers now. Might be a secondary effect from her more social living arrangements, now that the homeless man joined her.

Our technician has revealed that the Portuguese authorities refuse to share information about any of their citizens, even if it might help find the Banshee. Good thing we didn’t offer up her name beforehand.

###  **File 17**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

One of her cats showed up to work, meowing a lot. It concerned her greatly. Snowdrop left work hastily and I couldn’t follow. I contacted my handler for the sake of having her movements monitored.

The recordings of her sleeping quarters showed the homeless man viciously slashing at another of her cats before Hades scared him off. It shows Snowdrop arrive some time later with the meowing cat and finding the wounded one.

We sent the recordings to the police officers. They’d been suspecting her of being the one behind it initially. With the recordings in hand they decided to investigate the alleyway and found more evidence supporting our recordings.

Turned out the homeless man was a small-time criminal that worked for a gang and fled his city after a robbery gone wrong. His rep-sheet is long with sexual harassment and burglary charges.

Snowdrop went missing after she was finally let go of the interrogation. She left the city paying only cash. The criminal showed up with his throat slashed. There was no evidence connecting her aside from her showing up in a few traffic cams close to the crime scene.

I’m not surprised.

I’ve seen the way she looked when she found her slashed cat. Her eyes looked dead. She looked broken. She had horrendous nightmares after all of this. She spent the rest of the night awake, siting up against the wall, looking like a puppet whose strings had been cut. She has also shown several other signs of PTSD from a prior traumatic event, according to a psychologist called to analyze the footage. Her reactions are extreme enough to be comparable to returned soldiers from Iraq. I’m more convinced than ever that she is the Banshee after this.

###  **File 18**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

Snowdrop has regressed. She now barely even reacts to any social circumstances and stopped helping others like before. She acts almost robot-like while in her work space. I think the betrayal from that criminal might have hit her pretty hard. She shows signs of depression and her verbal communication has showed an increase of self-deprecating sentences.

In many of the recordings she seems to either be talking to herself or to her pets. I hope this won’t last long.

###  **File 142**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

She is acting different at last, after these two and a half years. Unfortunately, it’s not a good sign. My handler has noticed a pair of men closing in on her. She changed sleeping spots because of it. 

I don’t like the look of those two. It seems too deliberate and confident. My handler has moved closer to her new place in hopes of keeping a better lookout on her, especially now that we have to relocate all of the cameras.

###  **File 143**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

The two perps followed Snowdrop after she left work. She freaked out and ran. I lost her in the crowd. By the time I found her again I realized that the two perps had found her first and that she was already being rescued by two skeleton monsters. 

She seemed barely conscious but still tried to defend her saviors by attacking one of the perps. She fainted right after that. The two skeletons managed to fend off the two attackers. I stayed to ensure that Snowdrop was safe with the two skeletons as my handler dealt with the perps. The tall one, known publicly as the mascot of the monster movement ‘The Great Papyrus’, used healing magic on her. She regained consciousness eventually and sneaked away as the two skeletons bickered over puns.

The perps’ DNA is connected with several unsolved cases country wide of rapes and murders. The amount of incriminating evidence was so big that it wasn’t necessary to call on Snowdrop to testify. It’s better that way anyway. We don’t want her life to be focused on while we are still ascertaining her connection to the antimatter bomb. With only 8 viable people left, now that we weeded out all of the others, their anonymity and safety is more important than ever.

Snowdrop’s attitude after the rescue has improved exponentially. It gives me hope to see her like this again, even if she is still very much asocial.

###  **File 147**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

Dieback was planning several different attacks in each of their known chat-logs. Some of those were quite alarming, involving nuclear weapons or the USA president. We were called for a briefing and completely missed the one chat-log that turned out to have the real attack.

Dieback organized an attack to the monster conference and were using its Antimatter bomb chat-log for it. 

We had learned to ignore that one. Dieback was clearly aware we knew about that chat-log so they avoided using it for anything major, keeping to bank robberies and other less serious crimes. That had been why we hadn’t believed that what they’d been planning there would hold any water. Why would they use a chat-log they knew had already been busted? Then again, that had been why they had posted so many fake plans on the other more prominent and active chat-logs, after all.

Not only would their true plan be dismissed as fake, they would also know which of the other logs we had access to by watching all of our precautions.

They were planning on killing the ambassador and maybe also the king and queen and make a deal with the new monster ambassador, once one was selected, to protect them and all of monster kind in exchange for copious amounts of gold. And Dieback would have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for Snowdrop.

Single-handedly, Snowdrop managed to get access to the robot celebrity Mettaton and the Royal Scientist Dr. Alphys and garner their help in preventing the attack from taking any lives.

I now, more than ever, am sure she is the Banshee. Why else would she have been monitoring that specific chat-log? Why else would she have acted? And adding all of her prior reactions and hints to these facts? There is no doubt in my mind. She must be the Banshee. 

I know for a fact that she was shot, but it appears that, as thanks for her actions, the monsters healed her. Is it wrong of me to feel proud of how she trained her pets? Technically I have had nothing to do with it and I shouldn’t show any partiality towards her but I can’t help but root for her regardless. My handler thinks I’m getting too attached to her.

However, as much as I am proud of how she behaved herself in a high stress situation, her actions have now made my job harder. Dieback is acutely aware of her existence and our technician has overworked herself for the sake of altering her information. Hopefully she changed it just in time.

###  **File 148**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

We’ve had to come up with a second code name for Snowdrop completely unrelated to this one for the sake of protecting this information. Dieback is aware of her existence but, thanks to our technician, they think that Snowdrop (now also called Valkyrie) has arrived to the USA one and a half years earlier than she actually did. At most they assume she is one of those curious kids that think they are great hackers and was curious about the antimatter bomb from almost three years ago.

While it doesn’t sit well with them, it’s not as if there haven’t been kids like that getting into their chats before so they aren’t dead set on capturing or killing her just yet. They are curious, though, so now I have to be subtler about my surveillance over her. My handler has also made himself scarce and has had to hide his cams even better. So long as they think of my handler’s surveillance as precaution and not as ensuring safety and don’t know about my presence here, Dieback will have no reason to attack her.

On another note, Snowdrop seems livelier than ever. I don’t know what the monsters did or said, but she is definitely more cheerful and has started chuckling at my jokes sometimes. I approve of this change.

###  **File 149**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

Sometimes I wonder if I’m cursed. Over two years without any incidents and suddenly Snowdrop starts to get involved into dangerous situations once every two weeks. Not that I condemn her for trying to save a kid, but she could have called the police before going to fetch a monster that could heal him.

Good thing I had an eye out for her. By the time she returned with the fire monster that came to her aid, the police were already on their way. She has gotten better at fighting. They didn’t manage to land a hit. 

Hopefully, with this, Dieback will think her actions on the conference were mere pro-monster activism than her potentially being the Banshee, though I doubt it.

At least she appears to have gained one more protector, if the fire monster’s actions are to be believed.

###  **File 150**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

It’s moments like this that I hate having to pretend I’m a normal unrelated person so that a major criminal organization won’t kill a mostly innocent person for surviving a bomb.

She was attacked by thirteen guys and I couldn’t be there for her because one of the known operatives from Dieback was in town and taking special notice of her. I couldn’t even call the fucking police and do something about it because the call would be traced back to me and I wasn’t even in the area. My handler was still trying to decide what to do when Undyne of the previous Royal Guard arrived. It was a mere coincidence, a lucky one at that, that she had decided to redo all of the interviews that day and at that time.

Now Snowdrop is staying at the Monster compound while she waits for the trial. This relieves me since she’ll be safe there. Perhaps co-inhabiting with the monsters might be good for her. While I haven’t had the chance to meet one just yet, according to the social media (the part that isn’t biased because of personal beliefs) monsters are generally nice.

###  **File 151**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

I’ve received disturbing news this week. It appears one of my team, code name: Rake, was careless and Dieback found their target. Rute Pereira, 54 years old, born in Canal da Caveira, Portugal, code name: Zinnia, was abducted while shopping. The reasons why they took her were the same ones why we suspected her to be a potential target. 

She was from Portugal, arriving not long after the bomb; she was formerly married to one of the people that died in the bomb that day, though there are no indications that she was present there at all at the time; she did not want to talk about the bomb, which made our suspicions plausible. Our investigation uncovered that she moved to the USA for the sake of getting a new life and perhaps earn more money before retirement. She had no alibi for where she was at the time of the bombing but, despite all that evidence, she had no signs of having been there when it happened either, unlike Snowdrop.

She was found in a ditch two days later, mostly intact, confirming that she was not the Banshee. They would have wanted to study her first before discarding her. That sort of ‘study’ would have left marks.

I’m scared for Snowdrop…

At least she is getting better. I guess I’ll just have to be more careful from now on.

###  **File 152**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

Snowdrop is acting more and more cheerful as time goes by. These monsters’ influence is being good for her and she’s much more open to talk to our co-workers. Still not a social butterfly by any means, but for someone with my observation skills, it’s obvious something has changed. I’m not the only one noticing, though those around seem to think love is in the air instead.

Then the monster rulers and the other members of the compound’s household decided to pay her a visit at work. I, of course, already knew all about how she had no home and was staying with the monsters for now, but had to pretend I didn’t just like all of the others. She definitely acts a lot livelier around them. It saddens me a bit that they managed to breach past her shield while I couldn’t. But then again there is nothing like enforced co-habitation to force non-social people to socialize, even if just for a little bit.

I noticed that the shorter skeleton, Sans, seemed to be keeping an eye on Snowdrop whenever she wasn’t looking and even asked a few intrusive questions about our salary. He must have caught onto the fact that she earns more than enough to get a home of her own. I hope he puts the new information he got to good use. If she won’t rely on anyone at work she might as well rely on the people she lives with. Of course that this means that he’s pretty much screwed if he decides to use it badly.

###  **File 156**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

If you remember, last week I mentioned trying to let the monsters know about Snowdrop’s special days off. The ones she takes the day off to visit her sister on the anniversary of the antimatter bomb. This was another of the reasons why I suspected she was the Banshee. 

I was, once again, hoping she would open up to them, since she seems to reluctant to open up to anyone else. Since Dr. Alphys was hired by our government to study anything pertaining the antimatter bomb in hopes that fresh eyes could see what others have not, I’m pretty sure Snowdrop will be in good hands with them.

And if she isn’t I can always rain down hell on them.

Besides, I know Rajani will protect her if anything happens.

I still can’t believe that all those times I thought she was talking to herself she was actually talking to an alternate personality. These past few weeks I’ve come to get to know Rajani. I gotta say: I like her spunk.

I’m also pretty sure she was the one doing the murder from long ago. It always felt odd to me that Snowdrop would have done it. She's always so kind and considerate that it didn’t quite match. Rajani, however. She is willing to do what it takes to protect her ‘mind sister’ and has no trouble admitting it most of the time. If anything, she is brutally honest. She has yet to admit to murder, though. Still, I like her.

Snowdrop was a bit off after she returned from her visit. Something must have happened but, so far, the repercussions must have been positive. 

We just got a notice from the monster-human research team Alphys is in that they have a lead on the Banshee’s location and that she agreed to let some tests be performed on her. In return she demanded that she remains anonymous for her own safety so the scientific team is requesting for us not to follow her. At this point nothing can dissuade me from the notion that Snowdrop is the Banshee.

(On a side note, boss. Are you sure you don’t want in on the pool? Even my handler is betting on her running away with Grillby just to be a troll. Who the hell bets one dollar aside from trolls anyway? Come on, boss. I know you like a good bet. I say that Sans and Snowy will be together in some way by the end of the year.)

###  **File 157**

**Agent Code Name:** Trowel

We’ve finally managed to sneak a few cams inside the monster compound. We took the chance during Undyne’s and Dr. Alphys’ wedding celebrations for that. Since I’m already one of Snowdrop’s co-workers too, no one would suspect too much of my presence there. My handler also managed to slide in, despite having no affiliation what so ever with neither Snowdrop nor the brides. Then again there were already plenty of humans there so they didn’t notice him.

The cams have been installed successfully. In all compartments save for the bathrooms and the unused third floor.

(On a side note, Snowdrop seemed pretty flustered around Sans. I’m keeping my bet that they’ll end up together in some way before the year ends. There’s just too much sexual tension floating in the air not to.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the hardest part of this little tidbit was calculating the weeks so that I could properly number the files but I did it. I skipped a few (a lot, actually) of week because they weren't relevant to the story, especially when it comes to the interval of time in which she was acting robot-like. Those reports would have been pretty boring to read.
> 
> So, do you like Trowel? What are you thoughts on him? Do you think he's any of the characters mentioned already in the story or am I being a sneaky a-hole in not having written him in yet? Comment bellow your guesses!
> 
> Also, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be ready ;_; I'm still busy with essays and I've officially ran out of backup chapter to keep on releasing for your sake XC


	60. Chapter 59: Of Eves With A Bite And Of Scales

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmas eve. There's temptation, there's revenge and there's good news afoot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay and I've literally just finished writing and correcting the whole chapter so there might be a ton of mistakes here (i usually write it in advance and keep on re-checking as I write the chapters after to see if there are any mistakes. sorry)

It had been a long, long time since you last felt excited about Christmas. All the magic of your previously favorite holiday had slowly bled out even before your life went to the depths of hell. At one point you stopped feeling excited about any gifts you might receive. You weren’t really interested in receiving anything in particular. And whenever your whole family gathered there would always be some kind of drama that killed the whole ‘family holiday’ kind of feel. 

Your grandpa insisted on gathering both of his daughters under the same roof, as well as all the grandchildren and great grandchildren he could. You had nothing against one of your cousins and his kids. He was chill. But the other one and your aunt? Talk about leeches.

They badmouthed everyone behind their backs and thought no one knew, they kept coming to your grandpa for money and basically ignored him when they didn’t need it. And despite it all your aunt had been the ‘better child’ according to him, not your mother, who was the one who actually took care of him. It was one of the reasons you disliked your grandpa. That and the fact that he could be downright hurtful when he talked to you. Truth be honest, you only put up with him for your mother. Rajani down right loathed him, though. She felt that he didn’t have the right to call himself their grandpa anymore.

But none of that had mattered for years…

Now you only had your sister, as far as blood relationships were concerned. Perhaps your cousin too? You did call him sometimes, but he’d always been much closer to your sister than to you, so… It was a once in a blue moon sort of thing.

This year was different, though.

You might not have your blood relatives with you, and you might not be too excited about the presents you might receive, and the magic Christmas used to have when you were a kid might be gone for you, but you were actually looking forwards to it. Mostly because you wanted to see everyone’s reactions to what you bought them.

What you hadn’t been looking forward that much to was the studio’s Christmas party. Unfortunately, Nedd managed to convince you to come. You still weren’t sure of how he managed to do that.

All things considered, the party wasn’t that bad. You had a few drinks and had definitely felt a bit of a buzz, but you remained aware enough not to do something stupid. Rajani went with you and it seemed the alcohol somehow impaired the use of her robot body. Even though you had been the one drinking, she was the one with an erratic flight pattern as she floated next to you. You celebrated having finished your Christmas special and then you waved goodbye to each other for the holidays.

For the first time you actually found yourself missing your co-workers…

With a jolt you realized how much you had pushed them away when you started working there. You realized that it was because you had actually let them get near you in these past few months that you came to care enough about them to the point of missing them. It made you wonder if you really were this ice block of a person instead of an unremarkable one like you had assumed you were.

Be that as it may, you decided to think about that later. Your insomnia was already going to keep you up at night anyway so you might as well leave it some food for thought. For now, you had to get ready for Christmas Eve. It was going to be the day after and you wanted to help the others make sure everything would be ready for that. But more than that, you and Sans had some scores to settle with two of your guests…

Undyne, Alphys and MK would be joining you for Christmas Eve and would stay the night. You and Sans hadn’t been able to exact your perfect revenge on them yet and now, after all they had done to you on gift shopping day, you were more determined than ever on making them pay.

It would have to be personalized to each of them, it would have to be big and it would have to be devastatingly humiliating!!!

Just as you left the building where you’d been celebrating the holidays at you were dumbfounded to have run into Sans in a very literal sense.

“Hei…? What are you doing here?” You asked.

“nedd gave me a call. you were supposed to call me to come get you.” He noted and you, guiltily, realized he was right.

“Oh! Sorry. I forgot.” You said fiddling with your fingers a bit

“it’s ok. let’s go?” He asked extending a hand towards you.

“Yeah!” You said grabbing both his hand and Rajbot.

In no time you were transported into the compound’s entrance hall. You looked around as you started discarding your coat and wool scarf.

“Why is no one here?” You asked confused.

“erm… have you looked at what time it is?” He asked you and you looked at the timestamp on your phone.

“HOLY SHIT! It’s past midnight already?!”

“shhhh. keep it down. yes, it is.” He confirmed.

“Ooooh. I didn’t get to read to Papy…” You pouted a bit.

“you’ll read tomorrow. since he’ll be more excitable it’ll take longer for him to fall asleep and it’ll make up for today.”

“… Ok!” You finally accepted cheerily.

“atta girl, brownie.”

“I’m not a dog.” You pouted once again.

“i never said you were.”

“But you said stuff that’s said to dogs!” You complained.

“come on, no need to be a _bitch_ about it. ”

You gasped.

“You _are_ calling me a dog!” You accused and, when he merely shrugged with a chuckle you got even more offended. “Fine! If I’m a dog then I should chew on bones, right?” You said with malicious purpose.

His face snapped towards you, startled, and you quickly took hold of his arm, bared it and softly bit down on his ulna.

“Howsh thhem abbles!” You said, teeth still firmly pressed against his bone.

Sans flustered hard at that for some reason. You didn’t really understand why he was flustered. You were just playing, right? Either way you didn’t object to him flustering. You rather liked it, actually. You wondered how else you could make him fluster even more…

“Hmm…” You hummed in thought, opening you moth but keeping his arm firmly held in place by your hands. “Interesting…”

You proceeded to give a long lick at whatever part of the bone you had managed to uncover from the sleeves as Sans squeaked in reaction.

“It tastes odd.” You commented. “Like… chalk with some sort of faint fruit flavoring…

While you had mainly licked him for the effect of making him blush, you had also done it because you had felt some of his taste while having your teeth around his ulna and wanted a better ‘taste’ of it.

“o-ok. let go of me now, brownie!” He started trying to free his arm of your clutches.

“No way! You said I’m a dog so I’m acting like one. And I don’t like my bones taken from me!” You complained while smiling at his cute reactions and growling playfully.

“brownie, go to bed. you’re drunk.” He said, suddenly yanking at his arm. 

You fell on top of him with the motion. And collapsed in a fit of giggles while keeping him trapped underneath you.

“What, bonepal! Can’t handle the heat?” You asked quirking a brow sassily at him.

He stopped squirming to stare you right in the eyes.

“oh, I can handle a lot of heat. but you are in no way or manner in a state of mind where consent is valid.” He said but you didn’t understand what he was getting at.

“Yeah, right! I think you just don’t have a better comeback!” You said and proceeded to lick his cheek. “Your face tastes a bit better than your arm.”

Something must have snapped in him because the moment after you were pinned underneath him as he latched his jaws around your neck. The sensation of teeth pressing against the delicate and sensitive skin on that area made you shiver. You tried to wrestle your way out but his hands and teeth kept you in place until you stopped moving once more. He then gave a long lick to you neck making you shiver even more and almost release a moan.

“keep in mind that counterattacking is fair, sweet buns.” He said with an odd breathy and low tone that made you want to shiver some more, though you kept yourself from doing it.

“O-Ok.” You admitted defeat, a bit ashamed that he ended up doing the flustering and not you.

“good.” He finally let you up. 

After finally managing to gather your wits from the pleasurable haze they were submerged in, you looked around, suddenly realizing that you’d dropped the Rajbot. You found her on the floor, powered out.

“Aw. Raj ran out of energy.” You commented disappointed in yourself. “I’m a bad friend!”

“no, you’re not. you’re just a bit drunk. now let’s get you to bed and the robot to its charging station.”

You nodded in agreement and grabbed the robot off the ground. Sans grabbed your free hand and tugged you up the stairs and you followed him a bit dazedly.

Where you really drunk? You felt normal. Perhaps a bit bolder than usual but still…

You looked at the skeleton that had been licking your neck just moments before in search for a definite answer in his countenance.

You wondered what his other bones tasted like…

He pushed you into your own room and you flopped on the bed still fully dressed. He placed Rajbot on the charging station for you. He was just about to leave when you stretched from your bed and grabbed his arm, your upper body literally dangling from it afterwards.

“Stay with me?” You asked.

“brownie!” He said a bit exasperated.

“I dun wanna have more nightmares…” You said shyly.

He hesitated a bit and the signed in resignation.

“take off your shoes and get under the covers.” He instructed as he took off his slippers.

You happily complied, feeling relieved. Once you were under the soft blankets, Sans laid down next to you, but on top of them. You frowned a bit at it but accepted it. It didn’t take you long to fall asleep and you didn’t notice when the small skeleton got up and left your room.

Next morning you woke up with a slight headache and a whole ton of self-recrimination. 

Had you actually had the gall to lick Sans!? 

TWICE!?!?!?!

And you almost moaned out loud when he returned the favor in revenge!

Oh _god_! Drunk you is a moron.

_**Dunno. I think drunk you is ballsy and sassy as fuck. She wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted.**_ Rajani commented in the recesses of your mind.

You didn’t dignify her with a response, far too flustered for it.

_**At least you got a taste of him.**_ She continued despite you trying to ignore her.

You squeaked and buried yourself under the covers. Unfortunately, you were still far too determined in your revenge plot, now more than ever, to get too afraid to face Sans. Thing was: should you act like nothing had happened or should you go talk to him right away?

It was with that in mind that you got out of your room fully dressed… and not at all ready to face him despite your make belief bravado.

Still, you forced yourself to move and were relieved when you got down to the kitchen and Sans wasn’t there yet. That didn’t last long. Because he hadn’t had any overtime work the day before and it was already late morning, Papyrus felt compelled to go wake his brother up.

At first, when he sat down, Sans seemed too out of it in his sleepiness to really care that you were there, but the moment he realized your presence he visibly flinched a bit, making you flinch in turn.

This was so awkward…

Still, you both kept your composure until the end of the meal. It wasn’t until after the meal and after everyone started getting stuff ready for the Eve that they managed to get enough alone time to talk while they hung garlands around the living room area. Papyrus and Asgore were decorating the outside and Frisk and Flowey were busy with the Christmas tree. Toriel was, obviously, in charge of the food stuff with some help from Rajani on a few traditional Portuguese dishes.

“Sans, I-” “look, brownie-” You both started at the same time and stopped abruptly once realizing the other was talking.

Such action was followed by the typical pleasantries of ‘you go first’ and ‘please I insist’ before them calmed down enough and you fell back into a tense silence.

“L-look.” You started, having had enough of the weird ambiance. “About what I did last night… I’m sorry for my weirdness. I wasn’t in my right mind but that’s no excuse.”

“n-no! at least you were drunk and…” You frowned a bit at that. 

‘at least you were drunk’? Like that’s an excuse for her behavior. Sans quickly backtracked upon seeing your expression, though he misunderstood the reason behind your frown.

“n-not that being drunk is a good thing, but… yeah…” He gave up halfway. “i… i didn’t have the same excuse for what i did. and I really shouldn’t have done that, even if you were teasing me. being the one of the two of us that was sober, i had more responsibility.”

Well… he wasn’t wrong… but… somehow? You didn’t really mind.

“Are you done with the garlands?” Toriel asked from the kitchen entrance. “Lunch is almost done.”

You peered around the entrance to the living room as a kid and a flower dashed past you. Well, more like a kid dashed past you dragging an unwilling flower behind. You wondered if they had heard any of your conversation, even though you were talking softly and they were in the opposite end of the room.

“L-let’s just accept each other’s apologies and move on, ok? No need to dwell on a mistake, am I right?” You said, desperate to just put this whole embarrassing situation behind you before you humiliated yourself further.

There was no need to dredge up how aroused Sans made you feel when he bit and licked your neck, after all. How, if you weren’t drunk and had more strength in your arms, you would have… No! You would not think about that! Not now! Not EVER!

“ok.” Sans quickly agreed with you, following you to the kitchen promptly.

Lunch went on without a hitch and though there was still some lingering awkwardness on both of your parts, you and Sans seemed to regain some sense of normality. Well… Sans did, anyway. You couldn’t help that sometimes your eyes lingered on his teeth and the blue tongue that hid behind them.

Maybe Rajani was right. Maybe you really needed to ‘let off some steam’. If you were getting desperate enough to think that way of your friend… you didn’t really want to think about it.

For some reason when you thought about finding some random dude to help with your urges Rajani decided to punt you in the head. It confused you but lately Rajani had been acting weirder than usual so you merely chalked it up to ‘weird Rajani shenanigans’ and left it at that. It also didn't help that you thought that much easier solution wasn't as appealing as it should have been.

After lunch you all continued decorating the mansion and managed to finish in record time. You would have volunteered to help Toriel in the kitchen but you and Sans still needed to set up some revenge pranks.

It turned out that, because the couple no longer had a set routine in the mansion, it limited the kind of pranks you could play on them but together you would prove to be an unbeatable force of justice!

You wrote down a list of possible situations you could use to your advantage for the purpose of pranking and another one for situations you could manipulate into happening for the very same effect. That done it was only a matter of getting the supplies ready.

They finally arrived midafternoon, MK sporting two wrapped packages precariously perched on top of his head, Alphys carrying a few containers, most likely filled with food, and Undyne carrying everything else like the ‘boss’ she was. You and Asgore, the only ones at the entrance hall when they arrived, helped Undyne relocate her cargo under the tree. Frisk immediately tackled MK before he could even come near the door to the living room so Rajani rescued his gifts instead.

“heya.” Sans said, having stopped whatever he was doing to scope your prey out before hand, much like you were doing.

“Yo, Sans!” MK said excitedly having recovered from him ‘glomping’ session.

“congratulations, ‘dyne.”

For some reason Undyne froze in her spot before turning to him rigidly.

“What?”

“erm… congratulations? you know, on the-”

“Yeah, yeah! On the bonding and stuff. You already told me that, silly!” She added with haste, interrupting him.

His sockets widened in… surprise? And understanding? He then shrugged aloofly and went about his way once more.

The whole situation seemed to be a bit off to you but you didn’t really pay it much mind. There was still much to be done, after all, and you still needed what was left of your brain power to scheme the downfall of your foes.

Frisk and Flowey were dismissed from having to help out in the house and, while Frisk still wanted to help out initially, they wound up joining MK on their room to catch up on the latest Steven Universe episodes. That made it easier to not prank the wrong people and Sans seemed to agree. After gathering enough data on your prey, you swapped info and began planning.

You went first, waiting for both of them to relocate their stuff to the bathroom temporarily. Once they left, you had Sans on surveillance duty as you found their special soap for their scales and promptly used clear nail polish to coat it thoroughly so that it wouldn’t work. You also grabbed Undyne’s shampoo and conditioner and glued the lids shut, though you doubted that would work for long.

That done, it was your turn to swap places with Sans on surveillance duty as he retrieved their phones. You were nowhere near as subtle as him so he had to be the one snatching them up. He set the alarms for the next morning to 3 AM before putting them back. Supposedly you had to hide them away from plain view in their bedrooms, but that only applied to real alarm clocks and if the couple found their phones in weird places they would suspect something was up. He also placed some toothpaste on their room’s door knobs where it wasn’t easily spotted and yet would still work just fine in soiling their hands.

You proceeded to face palm as you realized you had forgotten to use baby powder on Undyne’s blow-dryer. You didn’t use it because you preferred to let your hair dry naturally and both Dreemurs used their magic to dry their own fur. You also knew for a fact that Toriel dried Frisk’s for them at their request. It made Frisk feel even closer to their adoptive mother, since they never really had anyone to do it for them, as far as they had told you.

As you were carefully inserting just enough powder to have a nice effect but not so much that it would be noticeable, Sans remembered yet another prank you could play on Undyne. Something revolving around her deodorant and cream cheese? You didn’t have any, so he would go buy some later.

It seemed that it was far easier to prank Undyne than Alphys, since she had so many things she needed for her hygiene. To make things even, Sans placed a drop of blue food coloring on Alphys’ toothbrush in a place it wouldn’t be noticed easily. To be even meaner, you dripped a reasonable amount of vinegar into her mouthwash as well.

There were still plenty of pranks you could do, but they were timing based so for now you could only set those and wait for the perfect moment to strike. You went back to helping around the house.

Well… at least you did. Somehow, you found Sans messing around with Undine’s sneakers when she took them off to better climb the roof while no one was looking. What he had planned, you had no idea. But you still made sure no one noticed him by distracting everyone into caroling with you some Christmas songs.

Your act did not go unnoticed by the smaller of the skeletons and, when he passed by you on the second-floor corridor when no one else was around he thanked you and, much to your shock, proceeded to kiss your cheek.

Or at least tried to.

You were too tall, apparently. And, since you hadn’t bent over to talk to him, he could only reach the area where your neck connected to your jaw. It was an accident, really. it’s not like he would have done that on purpose, right? He knew that was one of your erogenous zones. After the whole ordeal before Halloween there was no way he would have just forgotten it! So, it had to have been an accident.

Knowing that didn’t keep you from shivering like leaves when the autumn winds blow, though. Going by his blush, he noticed that too and his expression did show some concern aside from the flustering.  
You quickly assured him it was ok and that it had been just an accident. If he had noticed your reaction, which he clearly had, then lying wouldn’t do anything to help. He seemed to slump a bit, probably in relief, at your statement before perking back up and starting to joke about triggers and arousal, which you took in stride.

One thing was for sure, though. You really, REALLY, needed to let off some steam! No bones about it! You should not be getting aroused by mere accidents!

You wondered if Sans was up to help you-

OK! NOPE! THAT TRAIN OF THOUGHT BETTER STOP RIGHT THERE! BETTER YET, IT BETTER DERAIL AND FALL DOWN A CLIFF, EXPLODING AS SOON AS IT HITS THE BOTTOM! FUCK THIS SHIT, YOU’RE OUT!

Fortunately, Undyne got back from setting up the neon reindeer and sled on the roof and put her sneakers back on. While she was still stepping on the soil she was fine, but as soon as she stepped on the driveway pavement she froze. She tried to scrub whatever she had on her sneakers on the grass but it seemed to have no effect. You laughed at her frustration.

“What did you do, Sans?” You asked.

“vaseline and sand are a gritty mix. especially on someone’s soles. best thing is that it’ll remains gritty and slimy forever with nothing being capable of washing it completely without ruining the shoe.” He told you and you couldn’t help but chuckle.

“That’s a bit too mean, though. Isn’t it?” You criticized, even though you were still very much on board with it.

He seemed to notice you were merely teasing him but still explained.

“don’t worry. i’ve bought her some new and better sneakers for her Christmas gift.”

“Good. This way she won’t get it until tomorrow morning!”

You fist bumped.

_**Urgh! He keeps getting more brownie points!**_ Rajani complained and you could only feel puzzled by it.

_Brownie points? Is that a play on my nickname or something?_ You asked, not understanding why this moment in specific was worth any points with you.

_**… Never mind!**_ She said hastily and you couldn’t help but frown at it.

Still, you decided it was for the best to not say anything. She probably had her reasons. So long as they weren’t shipping material you didn’t mind and, according to her reaction, it seemed like it wasn’t.

You returned to your remaining tasks before diner, always on the look out for any more pranks you could play on someone. 

You eventually managed to catch Undyne with one by twisting a rubber band a lot and then letting it loose against her hair causing a twisted mess. She didn’t realize it initially because she was too distracted staring at Alphys as she taste-tested dinner with a delighted groan. It seemed it wasn’t just the male gender that appreciated a well-placed innocent moan after all.

Aside from that one instance, all other successful pranks were performed by Sans. In fact, Undyne later tried to blame Sans for your rubber band prank and you had to come clean before a war broke out.

Sans seemed to be mostly focusing on Alphys, which was understandable, considering how many of the prank you had set previously were specifically for Undyne. Yet you sensed some hesitancy when it came to Undyne… Was he afraid she was going to whoop his boney behind? Well, she totally could if he let her. And you doubted he would let her.

By the time dinner was finally served, both women seemed pretty on edge over all of the pranks. Fortunately for them neither you nor Sans felt tempted on ruining the food just for their sake.

Alphys informed you of Mettaton’s whereabouts. You felt bad that he and his band would be spending the holidays working, but that was show-business after all.

After dinner you gathered on the living room, enjoying how the Christmas tree’s lights shone in the dark. There was no need for TV. You all sat and exchanged stories of how each and every one of you spent Christmas or Giftmas in the past.

Apparently, the monster version of Christmas happened more towards February and mixed a bit of Easter traditions in it, albeit not many. Frisk had fallen underground during the season and could almost be considered a gift to monsterkind. It boggled your mind just how far monsters were willing to accommodate human traditions, though. To change their whole holidays two months back just to coincide with yours seemed a bit too much. Instead they would replace the celebration for, according to Asgore, the ‘Coming Out Celebration’. 

You understood that he meant celebration the day monsterkind got outside of the mountain caves, but you still felt the need to explain to Asgore why that wasn’t the best way to word it. God knew Monster were already targeted by so many people. Last thing they needed was to have a holiday verbally associating them to the act of announcing a ‘non-acceptable’ sexuality or gender. Not that you had anything against it. In fact, you were the first one to congratulate any movement in favor of that community. But Monsters already had so much on their plate that they didn’t need to deal with even more stuff on top so soon.

Perhaps when they aren’t being viciously hunted down and killed for not being human.

You kept talking and snacking as you drew near to midnight.

You were close to midnight when Mettaton called through a monster version of skype to wish you all a merry Christmas. The shy ghost you had seem before was behind him, peeking over his shoulder and you could see the range cat monster from the wedding and a floating fish on the background.

“Wait! Wait! Before you hang up!” Undyne interrupted just as you were getting ready to say your goodbyes and goodnights. “It’s already after midnight and it means it’s technically Christmas.”

Oh, boy! What is she going to do now!

“I have a present for Alphys that I have been dying to give her for some time now and it can’t wait for tomorrow!”

“Why the urgency, darling?” Mettaton asked.

“Because we’re all here now! Tomorrow you won’t be here and I know Alphys will want to share this with you even if I don’t particularly like you.” Undyne explained and Mettaton seemed unfazed by her wording.

“What is it, Undyne?” Frisk signed.

“O-ok. H-here it goes.” She turned to Alphys, seeming very hesitant. “Alphie. Remember when we talked about one day having a bigger family?”

“Y-yes?”

“Well… I guess we are ready for it after all.”

“W-what?”

“I’m pregnant!”

There was a moment of silence before the living room and the communicator exploded in cheers. Alphys could barely keep her focus on her surroundings as she dazedly tried to come to terms with the fact that she was going to be a soul-mom. She seemed both like she was going to explode and like she was going to faint. Fortunately, she chose the first one and tackled Undyne in a hug and actually even managed to lift her despite everything.

Then somehow Alphys managed to French-dip her wife in a kiss with a loud ‘Go get her, darling!’ from Mettaton.

In-between the cheering, you noticed that the only one who seemed unaffected by the news was Sans. In fact, he was merely smiling like usual, as if nothing special had happened.

“You already knew, didn’t you?” You asked, letting everyone else continue their cheering.

“as soon as she walked in.” He admitted. “but she seemed so panicked when I tried to congratulate her that i figured she wanted to surprise us.”

“So that was why you seemed to be taking it easy on her!”

“yup.”

“So… you can see the baby’s soul?”

“yup.”

“What can you tell about them?”

“not much. there aren’t any dominant personality traits just yet. it’s natural. baby souls, regardless of their species, are always pure white. they only gain colors as the child matures. it's going to be a boy, I think. the soul is already old enough to start settling on a gender.”

“Wait… so a soul child begins by not having a gender at all?”

“yup. but can we talk about this tomorrow? for now let’s just celebrate.”

You felt a bit ashamed that you let your curiosity overpower the congratulatory mood you were in. You were talking about the child of a friend of yours, after all. They deserved to have you actually be there instead of thinking about the fascinating differences from both types of pregnancy.

“Ok…” You said. “I’ll hold you to it, though.” You added, unwilling to let go of the topic completely.

Sans merely chuckled at your actions, wrapping and arm around your shoulder and pulling you closer. The action made you startle and you felt a shiver go up your spine as you felt his arm around you.

“i wouldn’t expect any less.” He said and then proceeded to use your shoulder as his pillow.

You became confused because you were both relieved and disappointed at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully I can finish the next one way before the deadline. Hope you liked the pinch of temptation I sprinkled in (oh and Sans so totally kissed just below the jaw in purpose and got disappointed by her response. poor skelly)


	61. Chapter 60: Of Snowflakes And Cheetahs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys. sorry for the delay. Please read the end notes for images and an announcement.

As predicted previously by Sans, when it came the time to read a story for Papyrus to sleep, he was practically bouncing on the walls. The fact that the kids decided to join you didn’t help at all. You would have missed the results of your pranks completely if Undyne and Alphys hadn’t gone there to complain, thinking Sans was the only one at fault. 

It was interesting seeing Alphys with blue tinted teeth, hands still caked with toothpaste in a failed attempt on washing it with your nail polish soap and a screwed expression from the vinegar mouthwash and an Undyne that had clearly managed to wash her hair just fine just as you predicted she would (there was no way the glued lids wouldn’t have caved to her superior strength), but that was now covered in a fine white powder. She also had a weird substance on her armpits and you finally realized what Sans’ cream cheese deodorant prank meant.

You both quietly admitted to your pranks and, when Undyne started claiming revenge on you, you told her you were discounting on how much she owed you for the sex shop thing with each prank. She didn’t like it much but accepted it. She knew that, with your level of anger, there was no gift that could match up, no matter how awesome it was. She then asserted that that might excuse your pranks, but it certainly did not excuse Sans’ so she tried to challenge him to a fight. ‘Tried’ being the keyword.

Sans somehow managed to divert her anger away from him. Most of it happened outside of Papyrus’ bedroom so you had no idea how he managed to perform such miraculous feat. All you knew was that he returned scot free and Undyne’s rage seemed somewhat quelled.

By the time he returned, Papyrus and the kids had managed to cover Papyrus’ bedroom floor with thin camping mattresses, pillows and several covers and blankets, making a massive pillow fort in which you all could fit. Obviously, they managed to get you and Sans to go inside to read them their next saga together. By the time everyone was settled you and Sans were surrounded on all sides with no way to escape so you resignedly gave in to the idea that you would be sleeping together that night.

The idea made you nervous after what you’d done the night before. But it’s not like anything would happen with the kids and Papyrus around. It not like anything would happen without them there either. It’s not like Sans was interested in you that way, right? And even if you were feeling sexual attraction towards him, it’s not like you were going to act on it or something.

You were going to be just fine.

Sans started reading first.

“let’s start, then. _chapter 1. accidentally vaporize my pre-algebra teacher._ well, that escalated quickly! ” He added. 

It was something of common occurrence whenever he was the one doing the reading. It helped to keep things interesting, though at times it could get quite distracting when you were trying to keep up with his reading. 

“ok, back to the story. _look, i didn’t want to be a half-blood._ is this a fanfic of the inuyasha thing alphys keeps going on about? _if you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now._ welp, you heard the man! ” Sans proceeded to close the book, though you saw him making sure to keep one of his phalanges still marking the page. It was all for comedic effect.

As expected, Papyrus and the kids started protesting and you couldn’t help but smirk at it.

“I had no idea you are a half-blood, Sans!” You said.

“sure i am. i'm half skeleton and half couch potato.”

“Sure, sure.”

You made sure to slide a digit where Sans’ phalange was still keeping the page and snatched the book from him, even though he hadn’t read much.

“My turn! _Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous. It’s scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways-_ ” You kept going.

To be honest, you hadn’t been the one suggesting this saga and had only read the first two books prior to the reading presently taking place. Toriel had been the one to learn about it and the author. She thought it was very much commendable that Rick Riordan Had wrote it with a dyslexic main character with ADHD. He had written it with his son in mind as a way to help him come and to show that even people with his condition could be heroes. You weren’t surprised that such a backstory caught the goat monster’s interest.

Like predicted by Sans, Papyrus took a lot of time until finally getting tired enough to sleep. Having the kids around didn’t help much. Then again, the kids wore themselves out much quicker than he did so maybe they didn’t really do much to keep him wide awake.

By the time Papyrus finally snoozed on, both you and Sans were already barely awake. It didn’t take you long to drift into dreamland despite still being propped up in a semi-sitting position.

You really should have changed positions.

The next morning you woke up feeling like every bone and muscle on your shoulders and neck were rearranged out of order and trying to poke their way back to their rightful place. You grunted in discomfort as you tried in vain to twist and turn your articulation, hoping to diminish the pain somehow. Alas, noting seemed to be working. 

Sans didn’t seem to be too bothered by the awkward sleeping position, though. Then again, he had the habit of falling asleep anywhere and everywhere so you aren’t really that surprised at his lack of backpain. You wondered what his secret was.

It didn’t help your cause that Papyrus and the kids had woken you up much sooner than you felt ready for, considering how late you had fallen asleep. Usually getting little sleep didn’t affect you much, considering your insomnia, but awkward sleeping positions were never taken into account before, not even when you still lived on the streets.

You sluggishly headed down the stairs still in your pajamas and entered the living room where all the more excitable population in the house were gathered. 

That included your dogs too.

You weren’t too surprised that Frisk had done the honors, as the Monster Ambassador, of sorting the gifts and MK promptly directed you at your respective pile.

Despite her being one of the most energetic people around, they had to wake Undyne up. It was only natural. She and her wife had been woken up at 3am by the alarm clocks you and Sans had set. She didn’t look too pleased about it and you didn’t blame her. At least you were finally feeling inclined on forgiving them two.

You decided to take the chance and finish prepping your gag gift for Sans while the kids made an effort to wake everyone else in the house and actually managed to do it and add it to Sans’ pile just in time. Aside from Flowey, whose discretion you could trust, especially if he sensed some kind of mischievousness towards the small skeleton was about to ensue, no one else had noticed you messing around with his pile.

Frisk decided that Papyrus would be the first to open his gifts. Toriel had given him a pair of handknitted, flame resistant oven mittens for whenever he was up to his creative cooking sessions and Sans had given him a matching hand sown apron with a Skellington posable figurine (that Papyrus insisted was an action figure) tucked away in its pocket. Asgore gave him a mat decorated with a map of sorts for him to use when planning battle strategies, fairly similar to those mats that featured child-like drawings of cityscapes for kids to play with their toy cars. Papyrus felt tempted to try his new ‘strategy fabric board’ but held back for the sake of seeing the other presents. Alphys had created a personalized cookbook app for him to store any recipes he came up with and rate them, something that Papyrus greatly appreciated, though he wasn’t the kind of monster to use his phone that much while cooking. Undyne, on the other hand, preferred gifts that were on the more physical side and had somehow managed to fit a customized punching bag under the tree for him to use while practicing his magic. He then came across your gift and you couldn’t help but feel excited to see his reaction.

You watched in expectation as he tore apart the wrapping paper easily and pulled out a cardboard box with a machine inside.

“WHAT’S THIS?” He questioned. The pictures outside the book showed only the machine and not what it’s purpose was. It didn’t help that the language on the box was anything but English. 

“Read the manual inside.” You prompted. Those always had an English version.

He took out the manual and flipped the paged until he reached the English version and then froze. The next moment his eyes were filled with tears of happiness.

“YOU GAVE ME A SPAGHETTI MAKING MACHINE?!!” He asked, his voice trembling with emotion.

“Yup! The manual also has a step by step process on how to make the pasta dough before putting it on the machine to cut it. I figured you would want to be able to make your own and maybe even try to improve it or create new kinds of spaghetti at will.”

“THANK YOU, SKINNY HUMAN! I DIDN’T KNOW THESE EVEN EXISTED!!!” He crushed you in a bear hug after carefully setting the box and the manual down.

Flowey was the next recipient of another such hug and even got his flower pot cracked a bit. Your gift was a matching set with his since the flower monster seemed to think of the skeleton with some appreciation and was looking to start making amends with everyone and you had been the only one willing to help him out aside from Frisk. He gifted Papyrus a cookbook filled with several kinds of pasta dishes and other noodles from around the world.

Frisk gifted Papyrus with one of the two plates of spaghetti that you remembered having seen on the fridge that morning, meaning it was another last-minute wrapping sort of gift. Apparently, Frisk had done it all by themselves and wanted to show Papyrus their progress. Papyrus immediately took a bite and praised the kid. 

At last, Papyrus opened MK’s present, another ‘action figure’, this one seeming to be handmade with some sort of polymer clay and ballpoint joints. The action figure was of Papyrus himself.

That done, it was Flowey’s turn. Looking at his gifts, it all seemed a bit disappointing to you. Most of them had gifted Flowey with flowerpots. You weren’t surprised. Flowey wasn’t a social kid, nor one who was easy to get to know, so they didn’t really much to go from. But still one would think they would have more imagination.

Somehow Toriel’s flower pot stroke a chord with him. With one glance you quickly realized why. It was light green with a yellow stripe on the middle. It certainly reminded you of Chara’s and Asriel’s sweaters from the picture Toriel had shown your team. You still had no idea how they even had a camera that far away into the past. Toriel had also made a stalk cozy to go with it.

The only ones not giving Flowey flower pots seemed to be Alphys, who had instead devised a gizmo to attach to his flower pots that would make it easier for him to go from place to place independently from everyone else, Frisk, who gave him a gold locket that you had seen them use on some of the older photographs, MK, who had given him a Peridot stuffed doll, Papyrus, who gave him a golden bone, and you, who had gone to your storage and collected your old and mostly unused manga kit that you had collected from several magazine issues.

MK went next, after some grumbling on Flowey’s part on how unoriginal most of his gifts were.

Your gift was, coincidentally, the first one he took and was a watercolor painting of MK as Indiana Jones exploring for priceless artifacts. He loved it and wanted to hang it on his room. Undyne and Alphys had both given him Steven Universe merch. You remembered that you had shown him Steven Universe after Undyne had proposed to Alphys and he had been feeling under the weather, thinking they would leave him behind. After a few episodes that managed to cheer him up, Undyne had finally gone to talk to him and asked him if she could adopt him. It made sense that he associated the best day of his life with the series now. He mostly seemed to like both Amethyst for her being similar to him in some aspects, and Garnet for reminding him of his new momma Undyne. Papyrus had given him another golden bone. Sans gave him a pair of socks…

Admittedly, they were amazing Amethyst themed socks, but socks none the less. You would never understand his obsession with socks or why he had so many on his bedroom floor.

Asgore gave him an honorary royal guard badge, Flowey gave him a set of DVDs on how to use whips as weapons, Frisk gave him a portrait of all of them with a frame decorated by themselves and inscribed with ‘Your Ohana’ underneath, and Toriel gave him a handknitted tail warmer.

Despite looking very much excited to go next, Frisk insisted they wanted to go last so Undyne, the mother to be, was next.

She insisted on opening MK’s and Alphys’ gifts first and, when unsure of which to open first, she simply tore both wrapping papers at the same time just because she could. Alphys gave her a cleaning kit for her collection of massive swords and MK gave her a clay sculpture of Alphys. Next was Asgore’s gift who presented her with an Echo Flower in a pot, which was supposed to be a great honor. Papyrus gave her another golden bone. You gave her a metal replica of Rose’s Sword from Steven Universe. 

You had seen a guy on YouTube named Anthony Madwizard build one up and immediately tried to contact him to either make you another or sell you the one he had. In the end you bought him all the metal he needed for it and a bit more for the sake of him replicating it.

Frisk gave her the other spaghetti plate, obviously also looking for her confirmation of their improvement. Sans gave her, unsurprisingly, socks, these ones a set of five, each decorated with anime characters from Shonen anime. Flowey surprised you all by presenting her with a representation of her from the manga she and Alphys had commissioned you. Once again, his style was clearly leaning towards Shonen but you were sure Undyne would only love it more for it. In it Undyne was wielding a massive sword to battle against a mean-looking human for the sake of her beloved Alphys. At last, Toriel gave her the frying pan she had twisted before in celebration of her engagement inside a display case tagged with what the celebration had been about. Somehow, that present was the one that really moved the fish woman. Then again Undyne was also secretly very sentimental under all that tough buff lady act.

Undyne then insisted that Alphys opened her gifts next, despite her many protests.

Alphys tried to follow Undyne’s example by trying to open Undyne’s and MK’s gifts at the same time but was flailing around too much and ended up deciding on MK’s first since he seemed to be pretty excited about it. When she opened it, she saw a clay figurine of Undyne. Then MK fitted her gift and Undyne’s and it was revealed that they actually could make for one sculpture alone of the two of them kissing with a heart-shaped base and Undyne’s favorite gift instantly became MK’s. Alphys also seemed to find it doubtful that she would find one she loved as much. She then finished opening Undyne’s gift, revealing three passes to an anime convention and a Mew Mew Kissy Cutie articulated figurine holding them, which made Alphys squeal.

She then opened Sans, revealing another set of five socks, all Mew Mew Kissy Cutie themed. Papyrus’ went next, revealing yet another golden bone and then Asgore’s which seemed to be a scrap book he compiled of all of them with the focus being the couple itself. Yours went next, being your whole collection of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles manga, as well as Dengeki Daisy manga. You knew for a fact that Alphys hadn’t read either of those and you had refrained from mentioning them at all from the moment you thought it might make for a good Christmas present. 

Frisk gave her… something. You weren’t quite sure of what it was. It seemed to be some sort of machine with lots of moving parts It reminded you of a car motor or one of a small air craft. You weren’t exactly an engine expert so it was best not to guess at it. Either way Alphys seemed to know what it was and was pretty happy about it. Toriel’s was next, revealing a warm, once again handknitted, sweater to protect the drake monster against the cold, something she was particularly vulnerable to. Finally, she opened Flowey’s gift which was another handmade drawing, this time of manga!Alphys, with manga!Undyne sitting on the ground at her side, seemingly observing as monster families apparently got reunited with somehow twisted versions of monsters. Those distorted monsters remined you of something but the glimpse you got was so fast you didn’t have any time to compare them to anything. She did read out loud the text bubble on the lower right corner.

“She knew that was only her first step towards making things right. She knew the journey might be long. But she also knew that, with the right people around, she would be able to accomplish it.” She read.

You weren’t quite sure what that message was referring to, but it clearly made Alphys emotional about it. It seemed it was referring to a dark point in her life and how she overcame it, but you weren’t sure. You thought best not to ask.

Next was Toriel’s turn to open her gifts.

She, of course, opened Frisk’s first which was a pre-release of your Halloween special. How they got it when you knew Greg wouldn’t have let you if you asked him was beyond your comprehension. Asgore went next with a simple but elegant headpiece with alexandrite stones glittering on it. You approved of the look. It definitely fitted Toriel is she was ever in the mood to be a bit dressier than usual. Frisk then pushed Flowey’s gift forward. As Toriel’s long lost child, Flowey certainly had priority over the others, even if Toriel didn’t know that. Out of the wrappings came a big stuffed plush snail with pale green skin and an amethyst shell with golden stripes along it.

Sans was next, which didn’t surprise you in the least. The two of them were pretty close, even if Toriel wanted to go back to her husband. Unlike most of the previous offerings, Toriel’s gift wasn’t more socks. This time it was a blank trophy cup in which he had scribbled in permanent marker ‘the _goat_ est mom ever’ with a subtitle of ‘and the _baah_ st friend a skeleton can have’. She was over the moon with that present and cackling like a hen at the puns.

She opened Papyrus’ next revealing, unsurprisingly, yet another golden bone. She politely thanked him before opening MK’s, a brooch made out of wires that were bent into the shape of a flaming heart in an accurate representation of Yang’s symbol from RWBY with some handy plier. He had also glued some gold rhinestones glued here and there. 

Deciding to open the gifts from the rest of the small family together, Toriel reached for Alphys’ gift, finding an accurate cosplay dress of Steven Universe’s Rose. It was no secret that she liked her the best out of the gems and since they were already buying so much Steven Universe merch, Alphys had decided to offer that one to her. Asgore didn’t hesitate in showing his interest in seeing her in it.

Undyne’s went next with a pack for two to a one-day-long extreme sports experience that she would probably invite Asgore to go with. She seemed pretty up to it, clearly showing the teenage ‘punk’ side of her was still there underneath while Asgore was looking a bit queasy and like he was praying she didn’t invite him.

Yours went last again but you didn’t mind. She opened the colorful paper to find a massive joke book that had a whole section dedicated to puns. You could already see Sans showing a lot of interest in reading it too whereas Papyrus seemed to internally groan at his brother’s expression.

There weren’t a lot of people left and, with Frisk insisting to go last, and knowing your gag gift trick needed Sans to go first so that no one would see that you had his real gift on your pile, you pushed for him to go next. Fortunately, he shrugged it off, not really caring if he was next or not.

He obviously started off with Papyrus’ gift. This time it wasn’t a golden bone. You guessed that because Sans was more than capable of making his own golden bones, and because he knew his brother best, Papyrus decided to go a different route. It seemed he had decided to go through a similar route to Asgore’s and make him a scrap book. It looked a lot clumsier that Asgore’s and there were some loose pages but when he saw it, Sans’ whole face lit up. Seeing him smile so widely made you want to smile too.

You were surprised, though, when he decided to go for yours next. You’d thought he would have gone for Toriel’s considering you suspected he liked her. Perhaps he felt it wasn’t best to be so blatant in his interest? You decided not to think too deeply on it.

Yours wasn’t wrapped in paper and was instead a simple box with snowflake patterns and a bow on top. He lifted the lid to see a freshly made hamburger. He looked up at you inquisitively.

“I know how much you like Grillby’s burgers so I decided to try my hand at them. I made that one just this morning before you woke up!” You said cheerily.

“thanks…?” He still seemed unsure about it and you were pretty sure something in your soul’s aura had given you away somewhat. 

He went to take a bite and-

Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrffffffffffffffffffffttttt! Went the small whoopy cushion hidden between the lettuce leaves.

“Whoopy cushion in the food trick. It’s always funny!” You told him.

He burst laughing at being caught with his own typical prank as Papyrus complained a very loud ‘OH, NOT AOTHER ONE!’. You laughed along and waited until he sobered up before continuing.

“Aside from the cushion, the burger is still very much edible. Feel free to keep the cushion too, by the way. But this is the real gift.” You pulled the other box out of your pile where you had neatly hidden it.

“wow, this is the _gift that keeps on giving_. ” He commented as he opened another lid. Inside was a cheetah cub plush toy with two tickets to a comedy show on top. “what’s this?”

“I heard you tell Toriel you were interested in that show, but I also knew that because she was investing most of her money to her school, she wouldn’t be able to buy you the tickets,” It was the reason she had made so many handknitted things, after all. “… so, I decided to do it instead. As for the doll. She was a plush doll I carried literally everywhere and even slept with when I was still in my afraid-of-the-dark stage and even a bit after that. Since you sometimes have trouble falling asleep at night I figure she might do you some good. Her name was Pintas. It’s Portuguese for ‘spots’. I know, unoriginal but I was pretty young too. I hope you don’t think my gift is too childish. You can change her name if you want, by the way.” By the end you were starting to ramble a bit.

The comedy tickets had been a no-brainer but you had also wanted to add a personal touch to it because Sans deserved it from you. Especially after how much he had gone out of his way to help you with your issues. That was why you had rescued Pintas from her storage box. 

You had taken her everywhere but school until you moved to Lisbon and had kept on playing and sleeping with her well beyond your fear-of-the-dark stage and into your pre-teens. After that you had stored her away. You hadn’t, and still didn’t, think of ever having kids but you kept her safe in case you ever changed your mind. If you did ever have kids you had wanted them to have her. You hadn’t spared much thought on her until three years ago, after the antimatter bomb. Then you had seriously wondered if you should bring her out but you didn’t want to ruin her by leaving her at the mercy of the elements and you didn’t want to dirty her memories by mixing them with such gory filled nightmares.

And now that you were sure you wouldn’t be interested in starting a relationship, meaning the chance of kids was practically zero? Well, you had hoped at least Sans could find some comfort in her. You couldn’t have found a worthier owner.

You were still unsure about actually giving her to him as a Christmas present, though. Maybe it was too childish and would make him uncomfortable.

Sans inspected the toy, moving her around in his hard fingers as delicately as possible, now that he knew it’s age. His smile lit up once more, every bit as sincere as the one her had sent his brother just moments ago.

“thanks, brownie. that's very _sweet_ of you. ” He said at last, still beaming.

“Oh, hush you, Skelly Bear!” You shot back, blushing at his comment and the fact that he did seem to like your gift.

You purposefully ignored the wide smirks Undyne and Alphys were sending at you. You also very purposefully the excited whisper of ‘Omg! Yes! The ship is sailing! Sansiranda for the win!’ that Alphys spouted.

You were relieved when he moved on to Toriel’s gift after plopping your… well… ‘his’ now. After plopping his Pintas on his lap for safekeeping. She had made him the typical ugly Christmas sweater that was decorated with bones, hotdogs and puns. He opened Frisk’s next, being the receiver of a pair of socks this time, also decorated with bones and had ‘ _bone_ fied comic’ written on them.

He then took Alphys’ gift, a monster phone app that used monster phone’s inherent magic to display a hologram of the constellations in a hollow sphere, similar to one of Google Earth’s mode showing the night sky. He took Asgore’s next, revealing several physics books that were far more up to date than the ones Sans had in the underground.

He grabbed MK’s next, a pair of slippers that seemed to be designed to match Frisk’s socks and were very fuzzy on the inside, followed by Undyne’s, a skull stress ball for him to, at the very least, exercise his hands. It went without saying that he decided to re-enact Hamlet instead. How he even knew Hamlet that well you couldn’t understand. Who would throw a Shakespeare book into the dump, after all. It would be a far smarter choice to re-sell it. Or at least give away.

Last came Flowey’s. Flowey seemed very uncertain of himself when it was revealed that is was a very thick envelop encasing several sloppily written pages. Flowey told him to read them later instead of wasting everyone’s time reading it then so that they could get the gift sharing over with.

Sans asked you to go next because he wanted to see your reaction to his gift and you couldn’t help but accept at his earnest expression and quickly dove for his gift to you first. You had been expecting more socks from him so you were surprised at the jewelry box underneath the wrapping. You opened it to reveal a silver chain with a single sterling silver snowflake. In the snowflake there were six white sapphires in the shortest stems but what really set it apart was how the longer stems and the center of the flake had their stones replaced by the same gemstones that glowed in Waterfall. Together with the necklace was a pair of earrings that were also snowflake-shaped but different in style to the one on the necklace. The only thing they had in common was the glowing blue stone at the center of each.

The present reminded you of when Sans took you to explore the underground not long ago. You remembered fondly of your snow fight in Snowdin and the small hidden spot he had shown you in waterfall and you couldn’t help but smile fondly. For a moment you even forgot your backpain.

“Thank you, Sans! I really love them!” You pressed a kiss to his cheek and watched him glow as blue and the stones on the jewelry you had immediately donned. The scale duo was once more fangirling over their ship but you ignored them again.

You then proceeded to open Papyrus’ gift, another golden bone, followed by Frisk’s, a bunch of cat and dog toys with a fake award of ‘The Best Pet Whisperer’. MK’s was next with another sculpture, this time of you in a heroic stance. He also included Rajani in the sculpture. Flowey’s gift was a massive box of Guylian chocolates that both you and Rajani enjoyed equally and greatly. You opened the king’s and queen’s gifts next, revealing a box with several calming teas for when you couldn’t fall asleep due to insomnia or to help you with your nightmares and a book on snail recipes from each respectively. 

At last you opened the gifts from your supposedly apologetic shipper friends and got a crossbow from Undyne, since you maintained that you preferred long range fighting and admitted you had tried your hand at archery one time, and you got a very handy drawing tablet for your computer that was specifically enhanced for you by Alphys herself as her gift.

You thanked everyone for their gifts and anounced your forgiveness of their actions before making way for Asgore to go next.

Once again unsurprisingly, Asgore started with Toriel’s gift, which as a bear claw. You felt Rajani ponder on how much the bear claw was related to both Toriel’s ‘punky’ past of fighting grizzly bears and her first meeting with Asgore. 

Asgore then opened Frisk’s gift, a romance novel. You had never noticed that he liked to read those. You always assumed that Toriel was the big reader of the house and had never actually seen him read anything. But then again, he did spend a lot of time out of the compound and he did have the tendency to take a mug full of tea to his bedroom at night so he might be doing his reading then. The genre seemed to fit him.

Once again Frisk pushed Flowey’s gift to be opened next, revealing several seeds for tea plants, or at least that’s what Asgore said when he saw the little baggies. It seemed Asgore would be growing his own tea soon.

He opened Undyne’s gift next, since she was his pupil and a sort of adopted daughter of his (if you excluded the turtle monster everyone had told you about), revealing it to be a wide array of traditional Japanese sweets to go with tea ceremonies. You wouldn’t be surprised if the couple had taste tested it beforehand. He then opened Alphys’ which was a technical book on ‘exotic’ plants and how to grow them. The book wasn’t really about exotic on the sense that you knew them. Instead it referred to ‘exotic’ as in for outside of the underground in general. She had added a sticker with the word exotic to the title as an attempt at a private joke.

MK’s was next with a small plastic vase containing a little branch of holly jutting out of the earth and then it was Papyrus’ turn with another golden bone. He opened yours next, a small mountable indoor glasshouse so that he could use it for greenhouse plants. Sans went last with even more socks, this time with either plant patterns or teacups from top to bottom.  
Supposedly it was, at last, Frisk’s turn to open their presents but they held their hand up in the wide spread gesture of ‘wait!’. You watched as they brought several boxes from behind a curtain and put them down before you.

You read the tags and realized who they were for.

Rajani.

She was awake inside of you but hadn’t bothered getting her robot up and running up until then. That changed quickly as she, dazedly, made her way down. You could feel a lone tear flowing down your face that you were pretty sure wasn’t yours.

No one aside from you ever bothered giving your other self presents. Then again no one knew she existed up until now but still… Rajani was used to your kindness but she wasn’t used to anyone else caring.

Rajbot settled down on top of the top most package watching it with her never changing metallic face. Only you knew what sort of facial expression she would be showing now if she could. 

= **… Thank you…** = She said, her voice conveying all the emotion her face couldn’t.

Most of her presents seemed to be Homestuck related stuff, more specifically to two characters she liked best which were Karkat and Roxy. Sans had even fashioned a mini-hoody for her with the godtier symbol of Heart… Of course, he had to fashion it out of a sock to keep with the theme. Papyrus was also the only one giving her something unrelated to Homestuck by giving her a mini-bone, also to keep up with the theme.

You didn’t have her present in that pile. You didn’t even know they were giving her anything. She knew your present for her was in the room and that had been enough for both of you.

Finally, it was Frisk’s turn to open their presents.

Because of their eclectic interests there were no two things remotely related. Because Frisk showed interest in monster rights and politics Asgore had gotten them a few simple books introducing them better to the subject so that they could more easily understand the other politicians and make themselves easier to understand. Because they had asked Toriel to teach them how to knit she had given them a book with some knitting patterns, knitting needles and several kinds of yarn. Because they liked anime Alphys had given them the full copy of a show she thought they might like. You didn’t really know the reasoning behind the free passes Undyne had gotten them for martial arts training unless it was based solely on her interests alone. Papyrus… yeah, he’d gotten them another golden bone. Sans gave him… hot dog socks? Flowey gave them a drawing of them as an angel. MK had given them a cute rain coat and boots ensemble. You had given them a few art supplies due to them asking you how to draw as well as the whole set of Chronicles of Narnia books for story time.

With that you were finally through with the gift giving. You grabbed yours and Rajani’s things and brought them up to your room to keep them safe, all the while internally cursing your sore shoulders from poor sleeping positions. Once there you gave your pack their presents and well as Rajani’s gift.

Each dog got a delicious bone with meat still attached for them to gnaw on and each cat got catnip filled toys… that would probably only last until Iris finished her bone and needed something else to destroy. As for Rajani you used a pair of earbuds and a few purple leds to craft a mini axent headphone for her. The ‘ears’ didn’t work like the real version but at least it was the closest version you could make for Rajbot’s tiny head.

You were about to leave the room again when you caught sight of yourself in the mirror. You were still wearing Sans’ gift. You liked the way the jewelry fitted you. You had never been particularly in love with the color blue. Sure, there were shades of it that you did like, especially turquoise-blue, but your favorite color had always been bright purple. 

So why did you suddenly find yourself loving cyan-blue?

You softly touched the glowing snowflake hanging just below the hollow of your throat, watching mesmerized as your copy from the other side of the looking glass repeated the movement. Purple had always been your color but you wouldn’t want your necklace and earrings to have purple stones, even if they glowed like this one. They would feel wrong if they did. Because…

Because then they wouldn’t remind you of the person who that given them to you…

You jerked yourself away from your reflection at the thought. What were you thinking!?

= **Is it really that bad to like a gift for reminding you of who gave it to you?** = Rajani asked from the vanity where all her things were, twirling in from of a compact with the sock hoody and mini-axent on.

You pondered. There really was no reason to balk at wearing a gift like this. Why were you acting so strange? Geez! It was natural. That was the reason why you used the gifts that were given to you, wasn’t it? It was the whole point! To remember the people who had given them to you!

You turned back to the mirror and stroked the silver snowflake again thinking of Sans. And this time you smiled and didn’t jerk away from the thought. You had no idea why he hadn’t given you socks. Perhaps he felt you deserved a better gift after the last few months you had? Yeah, that was probably it.

Sans was really sweet and caring… He deserved the best this world had to offer.

You decided to keep the jewelry on after all. You really liked it, after all. No reason to take it off. In fact…

You turned to your vanity and pulled a drawer open, taking out a blue and white long shirt covered with rhinestones forming a circle like pattern at the front and replaced the simple cotton button up you were wearing. Now you matched!

You could feel a mental smirk from Rajani’s direction.

“What?” You asked.

= **Nothing.** = She said quickly. 

You frowned but decided to ignore it. You completely missed the way she whispered how you never changed clothes because of jewelry before.

You walked out of the room and slammed into Sans who apparently had been about to knock on your door.

“Oof! Oh! Hi, Sans. Did you need anything?” You asked.

“well, i wanted to…” He stopped once he saw your outfit. 

The shirt you were wearing was pretty tight around the bust and had a wide neckline showing just a tiny bit more of shoulder than usual. Nothing even slightly scandalous, though. It just showcased the necklace even better than before.

“wow, you look beautiful.” He said looking dazed.

“O-Oh! T-thank you!” You retorted, blushing. Your voice seemed to snap him out of the daze he was in and he blushed. It looked as if he hadn’t even been planning on saying that out loud. “What are you doing here, by the way? Did you need something?”

“o-oh! i just wanted to thank you for your gift. it was a really heartfelt gift. are you really sure it’s ok for me to keep your pintas, though? she must mean a lot to you. i can tell.”

“I wouldn’t have given her away if I wasn’t sure. Believe me.” You assured him. “I really do want you to have her.”

“thank you.” He said, probably feeling humbled. “there’s something else, though…”

“What?”

“it’s… it’s about the weed’s letter. i don’t want to read it alone. can… can you sit by my side while i read it?” He asked nervously.

“Oh! Sure? Come on in!”

“i-i didn’t mean now!”

“Oh?”

“l-look not going too deep into it but… chances are that this letter might leave me a little messed up and i don’t really have anyone that can help me with the aftermath aside from you.” He admitted reluctantly.

“I’ll be there for you.” You simply assured him. “Just tell me when.”

You rolled your shoulder in a failed attempt to alleviate the stiffness and pain from sleeping in an odd position. The only thing you managed to do was make it crack loudly and nothing more.

“erm… are you alright?” Sans asked, startled by the sudden snapping sound.

“Uh? Oh! Yeah, it’s just that I slept in an odd position so my back hurts a bit. Nothing special.”

“so, what was that snapping sound?”

“Just be cracking my bones.”

“what!?” He said louder than usual. “and it’s natural to happen?”

“Yeah? I mean, it’s not the first time you’ve heard me crack my bones, right? Just my wrists alone make more sound than a crinkly empty potato bag.”

“well, yeah, i knew you could crack those bones. i just never thought you could do the same to back bones. spines are very sensitive and delicate for skeleton monsters. i thought the same applied to humans.”

“In a way it does. Spinal cord injuries are really bad and we could lose the ability to walk or even to move at all depending where the injury happened. The snapping sounds aren’t from the spinal chord, though. It’s just that my back is stiff.”

“is it uncomfortable? i noticed you frowning a bit during the gift distribution.”

“It is.”

“want…” He started but then hesitated.

“Yes?”

“want a massage?”

“You offering?” You shot back enthusiastically.

“wow, you got really excited about it.”

“I don’t really get massages a lot. They are one of my weaknesses. I practically turn into a puddle of half melted flesh.”

“…that imagery is gross.”

“Shush, you!”

“…well.” He started after a brief silence. “if you are still up for it, maybe you should lay down on your bed.”

“Oh! Ok. Come on in?” You uncertainly invited him into your room.

The Rajbot looked up from where she was still twirling in front of a compact with both her Hero of Heart hoody and her mini-axent on, this time while dancing with a Karkat figurine. She quickly scanned you mind for what was going on and you could feel her smirk, even if her face remained as inexpressive as ever.

= **A massage? Niiiiiiiiiiiiice. You haven’t had one of those in ages. Even longer than you last danced the horizontal tango.** =

“Raj!” You just hoped Sans had yet to learn the meaning of that expression.

= **What? It’s true! Even I enjoy myself a good massage and our body certainly had a thing for them. Now if you don’t mind, I want to see what Toriel is going to cook for lunch. Bye!** = She said and flew out of the still open door. Moments later you heard her call for those of your pack that were still inside the room.

You decided to ignore her attempt at giving you privacy. You followed Sans’ instructions and laid face down on your bed with his straddling your butt. He started kneading your sore muscles and you immediately sighed in relief.

“jeesh, it’s like massaging stone!” Sans commented not long after he started.

“Are you saying I have a _marble_ lous figure?” You asked with an attempted smirk that was to satisfied to properly convey the playfulness.

“pfft! good one!” He snorted. “but to be honest you do have a verrry nice figure. i'd be a fool to take it for _granite_. ”

“Thank you.” You said breathlessly, repressing a moan. Damn that man was good with his hands! “I always thought I looked quite _statuesque_ in body proportions.”

“tell me about it. the first time i saw you, your beauty left me _petrified_. ” He leaned forwards and said it near your ear. 

You felt his breath hitting your neck and ear and shivered at the sensation. When he went back to kneading your back you couldn’t hold back a moan at how good it was feeling. He stopped for a moment, probably surprised at the sound, before continuing, seeming even more intent on tending to every single muscle you had on your back to the fullest extent.

“Sans, you’re a _gem_ and your hands are pure gold.” You groaned at him.

“thanks.” You could tell by his voice that he was flustered at your very sincere sentence.

“I mean it! If this is how it feels whenever you get your hands on me then I have to insist you do so every chance I get!” You commented honestly and innocently.

“i… i got that.” Only then did you realize the double meaning to those words but, before you could correct yourself her continued. “i also meant it when i said you’re beautiful.”

It was your turn to blush and sputter a thank you. It was cut off by another pleased grunt when Sans pressed his boney digits into a particularly sore spot, releasing the knot present there.

_**Hate to interrupt but the shippers are going up to your room.**_ Rajani said

_Bloody hell._

_**Nope, were not on our period yet.** _

_That’s not what I meant._

“Sans, get off. The scale duo is coming this way.” You told him and he groaned in annoyance but followed your request.

“can’t those two just get tired of all of their meddling?” He said as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“Sure, they can! When hell freezes over.” You said, seating yourself at his side just in time for the door to open and two nosy monsters peered inside. “Yes?” You asked them.

“O-oh! J-just wanted to s-see what you two were up t-to.” Alphys said.

“talking. wanna join?” Sans replied without missing a beat.

“Nah! We wouldn’t want to break the mood.” Undyne said with an insinuating grin.

“The mood for what? Discussing which Harry Potter book is better?” You retorted promptly, trying to sound innocent.

“…yeah… that mood…” Undyne said unsurely.

“Ok.” You said and then turned to Sans. “Honestly, as much as I love the first one for setting the tone for the whole series and the heartwarming scenes of Harry finding a whole community that loves him when before her only had neglectful uncles, I’ve got to say that the third one is the one I like best. After that one Harry gets more and more moody. And the tone darker and darker.”

“Ok. We’re gonna go now.” Undyne finally said, properly convinced that you were merely talking about books.

Once they were gone for long enough time, you and Sans snorted at the same time.

“for a moment i wasn’t sure they would buy that.” Sans admitted.

“Me too. Did you see Undyne’s frown when I when on about the books? So much disappointment.”

“true that.”

You continued talking about unimportant things until Toriel called you for lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off the things related to the presents in this chapter  
> Here's the youtube video for Undyne's sword present: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzg_ww5MJ4o  
> here's the snowflake necklace: https://www.amazon.com/Swiss-Topaz-Sapphire-Snowflake-Pendant/dp/B005UFRFQ2  
> and here's the earrings: https://charmdiamondcentres.com/product/earrings/1124565/blue-topaz-white-sapphire-snowflake-earrings
> 
> Now, as you've noticed, I failed to update a chapter last week. Apparently I'm having trouble with my creative juices and couldn't crank out a chapter at the same rate as usual and I was ever writing this one until late night yesterday XC. Well, it's either my creative juices or coming up with so many presents at once. I never thought this would get 16 pages long... :/ Either way. I thought it might be a good idea to change my update schedule for **a chapter every two weeks** so as not to create false expectation when I can't keep up with the flow. Once I'm sure I'm back to normal I'll resume my usual schedule. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you fro everything else. And please dot ell your opinion on this chapter. I feel it's not as good as the ones before since most of it is just telling who gave who what.


	62. Chapter 61: In Which Nothing Of Great Importance Happens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas shenanigans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some shenanigans as I try to go back into the swing of things.  
> Sorry for the wait. I know its been a real long time since ive been here. but school work had been stressing this semester and there was nothing i could so about it. hopefully now i can go back to posting new chapters more often. it-ll be har, though, because my laptop was kidnapped, along with my phone.

What was left of the Chistmas day was ‘surprising’ to say the least. In the literal sense, at that. When random explosions of confetti happened, popping gifts on the faces of others you were quick to realize those were the gifts you had helped Papyrus pick when you when shopping with him. You’d been a bit disappointed that, after all of your suggestions, he’d gone with golden bones for everyone. You now realized he’d planned to surprise everyone with explisove gift giving.

It definitely wasn’t an action anyone would have expected from the tall skeleton, as you could tell by everyone’s comments. In fact, most though it was done my Sans, the eceptions being you, Sans and Frisk. You because you knew who had bought those things, Sans because he knew it hadn’t been him and Frisk because they were just too smart for their age.  
Still, you were pretty surprised when you had your own explosion of sorts.

In the end Alphys received a Mew Mew Kissy Cutie limited edition figurine that you had spotted in a hidden manga store and quickly pointed out to the tall skeleton, Asgore got a tie with a palmtree pattern reminiscent of his preferred shirts that you had pointed out ‘for the lulz’ and Papyrus was even more eager about than even you yourself, Frisk got a matching cap for his favored sweater, you got an award for ‘The Kindest Person in the World’ that actually got a tear out of you, MK got a Judy plush doll from the Disney story that Papyrus himself had spotted and you agreed it was a good choice, Rajani got a collection of miniature, but still very much sharp, blades that you certainly hadn’t helped him choose, much like you hadn’t helped him with yout own gift, Sans got a new pair of fluffy slippers, this time with kitty ears because you commented that Sans somitmes reminded you of a lazy house cat, Toriel got a complete kitchen set, since hers was very worn, though clearly cared for, Undyne got a book filled with partitures for piano of several anime songs, your cats got a very elaborate cat tree, though they weren’t subjected to the explosion of confetti everyone else were, and they didn’t hesitate on putting it to use, and finally your dogs got several chew toys that, knowing them, wouldn’t last long.

It was only by the end of the afternoon that everyone else realized that Papyrus was the only one not to get confetti blasted and realized the true culprit. Undyne rewarded him with a massive nooggie.

Aside from that surprising development, not much happened. You found out that Alphys was just starting to ready Naruto Shippuden, having finished reading the first part of the manga already. Undyne was way behind her since she preferred the anime but didn’t have much time for it. That, of course, lead to the discussion of ships.

Alphys seemed to like NaruSasu because, of all the pairings, it seemed to have more chemistry, though that was mostly to appease to her yaoi shipping side. The only other pairing she seemed to like for Naruto was Hinata, but only because it reminded her of herself and Undyne. Somehow she seemed to thing that, because there was so little screen time of her that she probably would never end up with him. Little did she know that was just because the author sucked at writing decent romance between the characters. You wouldn’t be spoiling that just yet, though. 

You told her you disliked all pairings that had Sasuke in them.

Not because you wanted the emo jerk for yourself like some of the anime’s fans, mind you, but because that after all the shit he put all the other characters through, he doesn’t deserve the understanding and open arms he gets, let alone love, from anyone, not even fangirl Sakura. You didn’t count his last-minute change of heart as redemption. He caused far too much harm for you to consider that a satisfying conclusion. You would have at least liked to have seen him actually put an effort in something to prove himself instead of being easily accepted back. Naruto never did anything wrong aside of a few innocent pranks and had to literally fight tooth and nail to get some recognition so it would always striked you as unfair that, after everything Sasuke did, he decides to return and the readers never get to read about him struggling to get trust back from the village, it simply skippes to a point in time where that is all over and done with.

Of course, Alphys still doesn’t know half of the shit he pulls thoughout Shippuden. She just started it, after all. She only read the first mission team seven does with Yamato and Sai to Orochimaru’s lair and she only saw how Sasuke hadn’t hesitated on trying to kill his former teammates. Still, she was more concerned with Naruto losing control when reaching four tails then anything else. That being said, she still hasn’t seen a lot of what he ends up doing and you have no intention on spoiling her.

You told her you liked NaruHina the best because Hinata was the girl that liked him since the very start, when no one else respected him in any way back then. Aside from Iruka, that is. You definitely didn’t like him with Sakura because, while she later developed some respect for him, she was still very violent towards him. You did admit she did get better personality in Shippuden, but you still weren’t too fond of her. You wouldn’t tell her why, since it was still spoilers for her, but there were some actions on her part that were very selfish on her part and Naruto is already so giving to the people he cares about that you think he deserves someone who would be very giving right back.

You did add that you were looking forwards to Alphys finding out who both of Naruto’s parents were since they were still your most favorite ship but, once again, no spoilers.  
That absolutely drove her mad, as she vowed to read until they were introduced that same night. Oh poor innocent reptile…

After a comment on how Naruto was the anime version of Harry Potter, only with ninja instead of magic, and you suggesting that she see Fullmetal Alchemist next, the kids started talking about the new book you and Sans had started reading to them and the topic shifted once more.

The final details for the Movie Night on the twenty eighth was finessed and Alphys, Undyne and MK left for a dinner out as you all opted for staying home that night for a family dinner.

After dinner and watching the typical christmas special, you gathered your nerves to ask for a favor from Sans:

“Sans.” You called him as you watched the small skeleton leave the living room, probably to go to the bathroom.

“yes?” He asked.

“Would you mind doing something for me?” You asked.

“hmm… what sort of thing?”

“It’s just, surreptitiously slidding these gifts for Grillby and Fukufire under the tree and Grillby’s.”

“hmm… dunno. seems like too much work for me.” He commented with a teasing smile.

“Pretty please?” You insisted trying to give him the biggest puppy dog eyes you could manage. “You’ll get to have a favor back and everything.” You suggested.

“ok, i don’t se why not.” He said.

“Yey!”

You handed him the gifts after he returned from the bathroom trip and he teleported out. He returned not two minutes after and gestured a ‘thumbs up’ indicating the tast was completed successfully. You beamed at him in thanks. He sat on the floor once more, since it was Asgore, Toriel and Frisk’s turns to have the couch for themselves, but while before he had sat beside his brother, he now sat beside you.

“i’m gonna be honest with you, brownie. i don’t know what favor to even ask of you.” He admitted in a low whisper at you ear. His breath rushing by your ear and neck almost made you shiver as you recalled his actions the night before, and a sense of thrill filled you and several indecent suggestions of favors tried to force their way out of your subconscious thought into your very conscious -and very aware- one. 

**_Perv._ **

_Shut up!_

“Well, you don’t really have to ask for one right away, but is there anything you’re needing right now?” You asked.

“hmm, not really.”

“Then you can ask me later.”

You both proceded to focus on the television. 

All in all, the christmas specials were a bit boring since you had already seen them. From Christmas specials you then when to Christmas movies that Asgore had rented. You did love Arthur Christmas, even if you had seen it before. In fact, Arthur did remind you a bit of Papyrus, being so cheerful, albeit clumsy, and having a big heart and solid convictions. Sans completely agreed with you, as did Frisk.

Papyrus liked Arthur the best but seemed completely oblivious to his similarities to the character. It was adorable, in a way. You changed the DVD after the movie ended for another one. Sans didn’t last the whole movie, but that was expected. In fact, it was a bit surprising he hadn’t nodded of earlier.

Eventually, when Frisk also fell asleep, Toriel deemed it was late and you should all get some rest. Asgore carried Frisk to bed and Toriel took Flowey. Papyrus decided to clean the lving room from what remained of the snacks when you volunteered to take Sans to his room, since he was asleep as well and still recovering from all the extra work hours he had put in to buy presents for everyone.

You went to lift Sans when you noticed he seemed warmed than usual.

“Hey, Paps? I think your brother might be getting a fever.” You told him.

Papyrus looked at you surprised.

“ODD, SKELETONS DON’T CATCH THE COMMON COLD.” He commentes while taking a glove off and feeling his forehead. “HE IS INDEED A BIT FEVERISH. HMM. ITS MUCH TOO EARLY TO BE THAT TIME OF THE YEAR… I REGRET JUST THE THOUGHT OF SAYING IT, BUT… IT IS PROBABLY FROM THE STRESS FROM OVERWORKING AND ALL HE REALLY NEEDS IS SOME GOOD REST.” Papyrus commented, shivering in dread from the mere fact that he was suggesting for Sans to sleep more than he already did.

“So all he needs is some rest? Good. I’ll make extra sure that the others let him sleep more.” You assured him, but then realized another thing he’d said. “Wait. Time of the year!?”

“IT’S JUST SOMETHING SKELETON MONSTERS DO ONCE A YEAR, NOTHING T BE CONCERNED ABOUT. IT’S STILL TWO MONTHS AWAY FOR SANS’ TIME OF THE YEAR, SO IT CAN’T BE IT. DO NOT BE CONCERNED.”

“…ok?” You agreed reluctantly, still a bit curious, but more concerned with Sans to worry about anything else.

You lifted him as carefully as you could, you absentmindedly failed to notice Rajani’s robot body being left behind where you had sat at. Carrying Sans up to his room was the easy part. The not so easy part was crossing his sock filled room, praying to all existent divinities not to trip and fall on the small skelly.

It was only once you were next to the bed that you finally relaxed. And then you realized his bed was a complete mess. With some difficulty you somehow managed to pull the messy covers off the bed and laid Sans on the mattress carefully. That done, you sorted which part of the sheet and covers was to go to the bed’s feet. You carefully tucked them around the sleeping skeleton monster.

“hn? brownie?” Sans’ drowsy voice startled you.

“Oh, Sans. You’re awake.” You commented and immediately wanted to facepalm. 

Of course he’s awake! If he wasn’t he wouldn’t have spoken.

“You fell asleep in the living room so I decided to take you to your room.” You explained lamely.

“i feel warm. too warm.” He commented a bit sleepily.

“I think you might have a fever.” You said, testing his temperature again with yout palm. “Papyrus thinks it might be from stress so you should rest up.”

“oh, ok.” He said, not putting up the fight youexpected him to put.

“You really aren’t ok, are you?” You commented.

After how much he showed his distaste at you taking care of him, this sort of quiet acceptance really concerned you.

He merely grunted noncomitedly in response and grabbed at the hand you still had on his smooth forehead. He took it of his head, which you had expected, but instead of trying to assure you he was ok he instead tried to pull you into bed with him.

“Sans? What are you doing?” You asked uncertainly, blushing as he continued to tug at your sleeve.

With one final more forceful pull you finally lost your balance enough that you actually landed near him. Before you could act, he grabbed hold of you and used you as some sort of body pillow, immediately falling asleep. He really was less than coherent and, though you were embarrassed about the whole thing, and those damned mutant butterflies kept flapping around in your stomach like maniacs, you decided to stay put.

Your worry didn’t let sleep much that night.

…

You vowed yourself to never admit that in fact it was mostly because you were too busy watching Sans’ adorable sleeping face.

Nope! Just worry, nothing more!

**Author's Note:**

> The unofficial acts finally made official!!!
> 
> #### Not Alone:
> 
>  **Act 1 - Ashes**  
>  Chapter 1 to 45 (Completed)  
>  **Act 2 - Flames**  
>  Chapter 46 to ?? (Ongoing)  
>  **Act 3 - Cinders**  
>  Chapter ?? to ?? (to be published)
> 
> Comments are still very much appreciated. ^w^ I do like to discuss plot point and character development with my readers, after all.


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